An Uber user is suing the company for a glitch in a previous version of its iPhone app that sent duplicate notifications to his wife’s phone, allegedly leading to the end of his marriage.
According to the BBC, the Frenchman had once logged into his Uber account from his (then) wife’s iPhone, but despite logging out of the app his wife continued to receive push notifications about taxi rides he was taking, leading to the revelation of his affair and, ultimately, divorce.
According to French-language publication Le Figaro, the case is worth up to £37 million but Uber’s spokesperson had nothing to add to the specifics of the case.
For anyone wondering if they’ve also been unknowingly revealing details of their journeys to friends or partners, the bug was only present for iPhone users and was fixed in mid-December with an over-the-air update.
It’s an interesting case, for sure, and one that could see the repurcussions of a programming error prove incredibly costly if the ruling goes against Uber. It could also call into question liability for similar cases in the future. The French court is scheduled for a first hearing of the case in March.
While, in this case, it’s a software bug, it’s not the first time the company has come under fire for privacy reasons. At the beginning of December, it also rolled out an update that tracks a user’s location at all time – not just when on a trip – unless they specifically opt out of the location sharing settings.
Related: Uber now tracks your location all of the time – unless you do this
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
