HN Explorer

Uber is tracking my battery status, all the time

26 points by punnerud ↗ HN
I looked into the HTTPS-trafic from the Uber-app (with MITMproxy) and it is one of the few apps I have found

that is sending my battery and charging status on a regular basis:

          "battery_status": "unplugged",
          "battery_level": 0.73,

21 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 54.0 ms ] thread
nibs
I use m.uber.com - I am almost certain it does not have this permissions ability. Bonus: it works on desktop too.
Gys
They have a good argument for doing so...

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/05/20/uber-riders-will-pa...

A similar article was posted here a few days ago.

trowawee
That is not a good argument. That is an asshole invasion of user privacy.
Gys
Sorry, I meant that in a sarcastic way
trowawee
Ah, my apologies. I'm so used to seeing people actually making these arguments.
wingerlang
> Chen promises that Uber does not use this information to pry you to pay surge

You're a bit to quick on the "asshole invasion of privacy".

> .. which sounds like a relief if that’s to be believed.

Maybe.

Even so, it is not related to privacy is it?

trowawee
There we go, there's the person actually defending them. Nope, I'm not too quick; Uber's a scummy company and this is a blatant invasion of privacy.
wingerlang
No I'm just saying it can be a case of e.g. "don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity".
fosco
if you see a person who is dying of thirst you do not jack the price of $1 dollar a bottle to $2 just because you know they are thirsty.

this business practice is unbelievable that it is even legal.

wingerlang
All I said was that they claim NOT to do this within the article.
fosco
weird, thats what I'm reading from the article in the link in parent. --> "Chen says users will pay up to 9.9 times in surge if their battery is critical just so they’re not stranded wherever they are (of course, assuming that your driver doesn’t cancel on you after your phone’s dead.)"
wingerlang
It is possible this has happened naturally, say after some big festival or event where 1000s of people call uber at the same time. Or surveys perhaps.

This is what I am talking about

> Chen promises that Uber does not use this information to pry you to pay surge, which sounds like a relief if that’s to be believed.

Because this quote is directly saying they don't do it. While your quote doesn't.

paxunix
That is not a good argument at all. It's a side-effect of collecting metrics. Uber has no reason to know the battery status of my phone--them knowing it will not help them improve service to me in any way.
Arcten
Possibly being used to track battery usage by the app, so that they can provide a better experience for users.
EpicEng
How in the world could they tease out the amount of battery their app is using?
dubroff
Uber does claim that they use it to switch to a low-power mode
Arcten
By monitoring proxies for battery usage: CPU time, amount of time location services is on, etc. and building a model. It's not an easy problem, but for an app that is widely used such as Uber, it's not infeasible to attempt.
id122015
I've just read today somewhere that if your battery is runing low, the higher fees you are likely to pay for services like Uber. Do you get why? Think for a moment before reading the answer... ... ... Because how could you order a cheap taxi when your battery is dead. You have an urgency and someone wants to profit from it. Like those who sell food in the airport. Like that locksmith who overcharges you if you lock yourself in, and so on..
wingerlang
> Do you get why? Think for a moment before reading the answer

This made it seems like the answer was supposed to be strange. It seems obvious that people are willing to pay more in such situations.

eb0la
I'm wondering if the higher rate also reflects a higher no-show risk.

I mean, you send the car there but cannot load it an cannot contact the client.

Does it work like loan classification? Higher risk get higher rates to compensate defaults/no-shows?