# Can the app sign you online when you are off?



## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

Not to sound paranoid but can they put you online when you had it off?

Last night when I was tired and done I signed offline but like 45 seconds later my app just went online and I got a ping, and I didn't want one, but I didn't want to not accept any either. Of course it was a crap trip.
Can they do that if they don't have any other drivers in the area for UberEats?


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## touberornottouber (Aug 12, 2016)

In theory they could program it to do anything. In theory.

Funny though that you mention it. I was at home the other day and just opened the app to check my earnings for the day. Somehow it had me online! And I definitely didn't recall going online while sitting at home half naked watching a movie.


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

Yes guys...

The Uber app is possessed...

Wait till you see...

Your phone spin around 3 times...

Rakos


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

I'm not positive, but I could swear I got a Lyft ping one time after I had deliberately turned the damn thing off after an annoying "You missed a request" message.


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## dolllarchaser (Oct 12, 2015)

Given the permissions given to uber in order to use the app, they in fact can do whatever they want to/with your phone. And it is for this reason I use a phone dedicated to uber/lyft and another phone for my personal use.


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

This used to happen to me frequently in the first 6 months of driving. I couldn't figure it out, suspected phone flaws. Haven't had it happen in a LONG time now.


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

Now that I see it has at least occurred to other people, I think they really did turn me on so that I had to decide if I wanted to not accept or accept another one. I had reached my quota of what I will reject in a day. I save them for McDonalds. So what was it when I decided to go ahead and accept---a McD's.
I rejected it for "too far away" and immediately just turned my phone completely off.

Now if they figure out how to turn the phone on and sign me online, then it's possessed.


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## BornToBeGuilty (Jul 28, 2017)

I don't think they would turn you on as it wouldn't benefit them. Acceptance rating does nothing for you really so you can just let pings timeout. Cancels on the other hand do affect. I have had the issue happen in the past but I feel it's a network issue.

Think of it as this. When you go online the app sends a signal to the server. It tells it you are "online" and ready to accept requests. The server keeps you in this state until you send it another signal that you will be going "offline" if the server doesn't receive this request for whatever reason it still sees you as online. The issue can be something as simple as you having passed a cell dead zone when you sent the request. The app itself acting up due to too many processes running in the background or even the server having trouble.

Due to that I don't feel they are making you go online. Now as far as them tracking your location that's a different story. The app is so intrusive I wouldn't be surprised if they know your contacts even though no permission was given.


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

BornToBeGuilty said:


> I don't think they would turn you on as it wouldn't benefit them. Acceptance rating does nothing for you really so you can just let pings timeout. Cancels on the other hand do affect.


Acceptance rating does count. I get alerts from them if it drops below 90%.

I work until 4:00 am a lot and they may try to force me to stay on if no other driver is around in the area. I only do UE.


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## BornToBeGuilty (Jul 28, 2017)

columbuscatlady said:


> Acceptance rating does count. I get alerts from them if it drops below 90%.
> 
> I work until 4:00 am a lot and they may try to force me to stay on if no other driver is around in the area. I only do UE.


I remember when I was new these alerts would scare me so my acceptance was always 95% and above. In time you will get comfortable enough to let pings timeout. There have been weeks my acceptance drops to 60-70% just because there are so few trips and the ones I do get are too far to profit on. The schedule I ran was 10pm - 3am mon-thur so there wasn't many of us on the road at the time. Never had an issue going offline when I had good signal.

They like to send out a lot of alerts to scare you to do what they want you to do. Remember you are not an employee you are an independent contractor. All their tactics are to get you to stay online and be where they want you to be. There are quite a few things that they can deactivate you for, but as far as I know acceptance rate is not one of them anymore.

The ones you'll likely see on occasion will be regarding not having a phone mount even though it is in one. Too many cancels warning even when they are completely out of your control. Too many harsh brakes or speed ups this one likes to act up from time to time.

Long story short don't stress about the little things. This company likes to try treating us like employees without the pay. Careful with your cancel % and have a dashcam as pax can be real jerks at times.


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

BornToBeGuilty said:


> I remember when I was new these alerts would scare me so my acceptance was always 95% and above. In time you will get comfortable enough to let pings timeout. There have been weeks my acceptance drops to 60-70% just because there are so few trips and the ones I do get are too far to profit on. The schedule I ran was 10pm - 3am mon-thur so there wasn't many of us on the road at the time. Never had an issue going offline when I had good signal.
> 
> They like to send out a lot of alerts to scare you to do what they want you to do. Remember you are not an employee you are an independent contractor. All their tactics are to get you to stay online and be where they want you to be. There are quite a few things that they can deactivate you for, but as far as I know acceptance rate is not one of them anymore.
> 
> ...


The last alert was my acceptance rate has to be 90% in my city and if it is not it is in violation of Uber policy. At the time my rate was 89%.


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## Hogg (Feb 7, 2016)

I have had it log me on randomly before too.


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

Ok, I have the answer: yes it definitely can log you on. 

It just happened today and I was looking right at it. I was done for the morning and it was sending me long pings that I rejected so I logged off. 30 seconds later it logged me back on right when I was looking at it. I ignored the ping and logged back off. Before I could even turn the phone off it did it again. I ignored the ping again and turned the phone off as soon as possible.

Scary!


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## UberDez (Mar 28, 2017)

Before they introduced the check boxes for accepting different ride types I use to just ignore all X and Pool request when in the city (I had a select/xl only profile but I wanted to be eligible for rematch at the airport with UberX) my acceptance rating would fall around 10% but my cancellation was always 0% or under 5% 

I noticed sometimes that when I open the app it will sign me in automatically it's so fast that you could mistaken that you had been online for awhile . I'm not sure why it does it but it occasionally does . Uber will sign you off if your screen is off for more than 10 or so minutes or if UberDriver isn't running on the top . I know Lyft will let you sit there with it in the background for hours , today I had been done driving for hours when I heard the Lyft ping noice puled my pocket out and sure enough Iwas getting a Premier request . I had been in Premier only mode for hours without a ping


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

OMG! It wouldn't let me sign off! I was done. I clicked sign off-line. 3 secs later I'm back on. I did it 3 more times and it kept coming back on. I just turned phone off. Will wait 'til morning to see what happens.


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## Whothought (Jan 18, 2017)

columbuscatlady said:


> The last alert was my acceptance rate has to be 90% in my city and if it is not it is in violation of Uber policy. At the time my rate was 89%.


Seriously you have to have a 90% acceptance rate where you are at???


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

That's what they say and they send me these alerts that pop up on the phone. I only do UberEats if that makes a difference.

When it goes back up (I never dropped below 85) they send me a pop up that says "congratulations for getting your rating back up...."


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## RiderOnTheStorm (Mar 17, 2017)

I am guessing the bug happens like this. When you go OFFLINE in the app, the app tells the server and sets your display (the toggle switch) to OFF so it looks like you're off. But things can go wrong between (a) the app and the server communicating about this and (b) between multiple servers (e.g. "presence" server). So it could look like you're off, but you aren't really, and when it all syncs back up, it decides you are actually online.

The app can toggle the switch on the screen, of course. Like for "acceptance rate" punishments. But it is surprising and a bug that it can turn it back on. When syncing with the server, if the server tells the app that it thinks you're online, and the app thinks you're offline, the app should win that contest, never the server.

Now, a weirder thing is people reporting lately that the app is switching on in the middle of the night after they have gone to bed and gone offline and shutdown the app and it wasn't even running! And they get pings! We know the app doesn't ever totally shut down, once installed on your phone. They're tracking you all the time, not just when you're running the app. But to have a bug where it suddenly thjnks you're online, launches the app (!) and starts giving you pings....! Hard to believe, but people are saying it's happening.


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## columbuscatlady (Jun 20, 2017)

It's definitely happening.


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