Uber will pay $20,000 fine in settlement over ‘God View’ tracking

Uber and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have reached a settlement over the company’s “God View” tool, which allowed employees to access and track the location of Uber riders and customers without obtaining permission. In 2014, one high-up Uber executive was found to have monitored the rider logs and location of a BuzzFeed News reporter without her knowledge. Subsequent reports on the incident led Uber to investigate and eventually discipline the employee, but also got the attention of lawmakers. As a result of New York’s investigation, Uber will pay a $20,000 fine, which amounts to less than a slap on the wrist for a company with Uber’s soaring valuation.

But Uber must also revise its privacy practices as part of the settlement, according to BuzzFeed News. Going forward, geolocation data for both drivers and passengers will be encrypted and password protected. And unlike before, when the aerial “God View” was made available to a wide number of employees, Uber claims it will now limit access to a specific few — and even then, it may only be used for “legitimate business purposes.” Schneiderman’s office seems happy with the agreement. Per BuzzFeed News, the settlement (set to be announced tomorrow) reads:

Uber has represented that it has removed all personally identifiable information of riders from its system that provides an aerial view of cars active in a city, has limited employee access to personally identifiable information of riders, and has begun auditing employee access to personally identifiable information in genera

Uber has maintained that the executive who accessed God View to locate the reporter did so because she “was 30 minutes late to a meeting,” though the company acknowledges that he exhibited “poor judgement” in making the decision to violate her privacy.