Uber employees regularly abused the company’s “God view” to spy on the movements of “high-profile politicians, celebrities and even personal acquaintances of Uber employees, including ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, and ex-spouses”, according to testimony from the company’s former forensic investigator Samuel Ward Spangenberg. Even Beyoncé’s account was monitored, the investigator said.
The news comes just two weeks after Uber updated its app to increase the amount of location information collected about users. The company said the new collection practices, which continue to send the user’s location for five minutes after they are dropped off, would be used to improve drop-offs and pick-ups, but it faced a backlash from users worried about the increased permissions.
— source theguardian.com