Uber updates app to let users select friend's contact as destination, which then pings the contact for their GPS location; app will not track friend after ping
Blake Montgomery / BuzzFeed :
Context & Ripple Effects
This feature is the consumer-facing payoff of groundwork Uber laid earlier: its [[a:829707|revised privacy policy asked users to grant background location tracking and contacts access]], permissions this destination-ping flow now puts to work. It also extends the sharing model Uber introduced with Trip Tracker, which let family members watch a rider's trip in real time — but flips the direction, pulling a friend's location into the rider's booking instead of pushing the ride out to an observer.
First-order effects
- Riders no longer need to collect an exact address from friends: selecting a contact as the destination sends that person a one-time GPS-location request, with Uber explicitly committing not to track the friend after the ping.
Second-order effects
- The per-ping consent design sets a template rivals in ride-hailing and messaging will be pushed to match — one-tap, revocable location sharing rather than always-on tracking — since the contacts-access permission Uber secured in 2015 makes frictionless reuse likely.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, location sharing across consumer apps consolidates around scoped, event-triggered requests instead of continuous surveillance — consistent with Uber's later pilot to obscure pickup and drop-off logs shown to drivers, which narrows who sees precise locations and when.
The trend: Ride-hailing platforms are moving from blanket background location tracking toward granular, consent-gated location requests tied to specific trips.