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Uber's trying a new strategy to make its rides safer: recording audio during trips. It'll pilot the feature in Brazil and Mexico from next month, and hopes to expand the test to the United States "soon," according to internal emails obtained by the Washington Post. Uber confirmed the plans to the publication.
In cities where the feature is active, riders and drivers will be warned through the Uber app and by email that their ride may be recorded. To capture audio, they’ll have to opt in through the safety toolkit, which they can do before they start a trip or get in the vehicle. Drivers will be able to automatically record all their trips.
At the end of a trip, the app will ask the user if everything is okay. If they want to report an incident, they can send a report (including the audio) with a few taps.
The password-protected recordings will be included in trip histories so drivers and riders can report incidents later. They won't be able to listen back to the recordings, though previous reports noted law enforcement officials will be able to access them on request during the Brazil and Mexico tests.
An Uber spokesperson told me the recordings are encrypted and will stay on the rider or driver’s phone until they choose to submit it. Uber will have the encryption keys for the audio files. The company will retain a recording in accordance with its privacy policy if it’s part of a safety incident.
Over the shoulder view of woman using mobile app on smartphone to arrange taxi ride in downtown city ... [+]
Rider safety has been an ongoing issue for Uber. Reports last year suggested more than 100 Uber drivers have been accused of sexually harassing or assaulting passengers, and at least 31 have been convicted of crimes such as rape, forcible touching and false imprisonment.
The company has rolled out a number of safety-focused measures, such as 911 calling directly from its app and a way to report issues during rides. Uber hopes the latest one will give the company a clearer picture of what occurred during an incident, helping it to decide how to address what happened.
The company’s head of safety products Sachin Kansal told the Post that, in the markets where Uber is launching the feature, riders and drivers won't be notified each time a recording is started. “If someone is already uncomfortable and they start the audio recording, we don’t want there to be any escalation of that particular situation,” Kansal said.
The feature will inevitably raise privacy concerns. The recordings may pick up sensitive information from riders’ phone calls or conversations. Then there are legal concerns, which might complicate Uber’s plans to roll out the recording feature in the United States. Laws regarding consent to record vary between states, so if, for instance, one person in a California UberPool doesn’t agree to being recorded, that might prevent someone else from legally capturing the audio.
