Uber God View Tracking Scandal: Employees Tracked Riders in Real Time

Uber's internal "God View" tool allowed employees to track the real-time location of any rider, and investigations revealed the tool was routinely abused. Employees used God View to track ex-partners, celebrities, journalists, and personal acquaintances. At an Uber launch party, executives reportedly displayed God View on a screen showing real-time locations of attendees who had used Uber to arrive. Uber tracked a BuzzFeed journalist investigating the company without her knowledge, demonstrating willingness to use surveillance tools against media critics. The FTC investigated and found that Uber failed to implement reasonable access controls, allowing thousands of employees and contractors to access rider location data without business justification. Uber agreed to 20 years of privacy audits as part of the FTC settlement. The God View scandal became emblematic of the surveillance capabilities that ride-hailing and delivery platforms accumulate and the inadequate controls preventing internal abuse of comprehensive location tracking data.

The ramifications of this incident extend beyond the immediate data exposure. Privacy regulators in multiple jurisdictions have opened investigations, and affected individuals are organizing collective action to demand accountability and meaningful remediation. The case highlights systemic weaknesses in how organizations handle personal data and the gap between corporate privacy promises and operational reality.

For impacted individuals, immediate action is critical. Filing a data subject access request forces the company to disclose exactly what data they hold about you, providing the foundation for deletion requests, regulatory complaints, and potential legal action. Below, we outline the specific data types at risk and the concrete steps you can take to protect yourself.