Uber has decided to limit the access its employees have to the "God View" taxi monitoring tool in order to address concerns raised about privacy.
The feature lets the ride-sharing service keep track of all of its cabs in a city, as well as customers who have hailed cars and are waiting for their rides, according to The Times of India.
While Uber's business has grown globally in recent months, the company currently faces bans in France, Spain and Thailand, and recent reports of activities and statements from an employee and executive aren't helping.
The privacy concerns with "God View" were raised by U.S. Senator Al Franken, who sent a letter to Uber in November that said the company was reported to be collecting a large amount of data from customers, and that executives were not responsible in the way they exercised their authority, CNN reported.
Cases involved employees who tracked a reporter's movements to a meeting, and executive Emil Michael suggested the company should reveal personal details about journalists who criticized it.
Katherine Tassi, privacy attorney for Uber, told Franken these two cases violated the company's privacy policies, and that the employee was monitoring the journalist's location because she was late to her meeting. Uber issued a public apology for using poor judgment, adding in its explanation to Franken that it only lets its employees access a customer's personal information "for legitimate business purposes."
Franken said he was disappointed with Uber's response, and felt that most of his questions went unanswered.
"Most importantly, it still remains unclear how Uber defines legitimate business purposes for accessing, retaining, and sharing customer data," he said.
The limitation of employee access to "God View" appears to be the latest move Uber has made to improve its image, the most recent being the removal of blog posts on prostitution and one-night stands.
