Ask HN: How did Uber app know I was flying today? Info leakage | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did Uber app know I was flying today? Info leakage

30 pointsanon-2020-0915 comments

I just got a pop-up on both my Android and iPhone from the Uber app: "Flying today? Schedule your ride with Uber".

I am indeed flying today, but I don't know how it knew that.

I know that Google reads your gmail to create these kinds of reminders. But I don't know how Uber can.

Here are the allowed permissions on Android:

- Camera, Contacts, Location, Phone, SMS, Storage (microphone off)

Allowed permissions on iPhone:

- Location (while using), Camera, Siri & Spearch, Notifications, Background App Refresh, Cellular Data

How did it know? Siri and Search seems suspicious. Is Siri reading my mail and providing it to the Uber app?

It says "Learn from this app" is on. However I take that to mean that Siri is learning from the Uber app, not the other way around !!!

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It's not your phone permissions. It's the internet.

In the general case, a data broker collects airline information from airline computer systems, hotel information from hotel systems, location information from phone carriers and so on. The data broker sells the information to Uber because that's the data broker's business.

In the simplest case, Uber buys the information from the airline directly.

This

The margins on so many services are so low, the only way to make a profit is to sell their data - and lead generation is very profitable. I believe most airlines make more profit from their frequent flyer deals that actual ticket sales.

I wonder if the OP is enrolled in an A/B test. While it's easy to see how this feature could boost CLV, you can just as easily see how the creepiness factor might increase churn. Or perhaps users have become inured to having their privacy so disturbingly violated, which would be rather dejecting.

At most, I would estimate creepiness to be rounding error. For each person who uses the internet, and Uber, and seriously worries about privacy, there are many many people who prefer the idea that the world revolves about them and who will see in Uber’s timely offer an affirmation of their own consumer savvy. Of the world bending to their most superficial convenience. Particularly since that’s the big idea of ubering.

It’s not called the “on demand economy” for nothing.

Has anyone proven this? Like registered to several services and found information leakage between them?... it would be an interesting experiment to view

I use 1 email address for a lot of services, so that's the identifying key, e.g. online shops would upload their customer database to Facebook so they can target past customers with ads on FB. Actually, sadly using a different email wouldn't help me much because my name is quite unique, and of course the online shop would have my name for shipping.

Facebook's tool about third party data (not sure if that's the name) that they had to provide surprised me because it showed me which services actually did what I described above.

Maybe it wasn't clear but if you got this while at the airport or on a route that is associated with the airport then perhaps that information can be inferred from your location.

I received an email from Careem that starts like this:

>We’d like to be the first to greet you on your return to X!

The model got it very wrong, as in nothing is even close to a situation where I'd be in X.

Even if they get it right in 1% cases and get a sale this way, they still make money. Emails cost nothing

All apps have access to your email address and cross correlate those info together.

Even without email, every app can access your device id and use that to cross correlate together with ad most networks.

I got the same notification today, not flying anywhere and not near an airport. Coincidence?

Location access on Android would make that easy would it not ?

You were at the airport when you got notification?

You have clicked yes on every permission dialog you have been presented. I wouldn't be surprised if you gave your Gmail password to Uber

Did you sign in with Google?

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