Apple And Uber Colluded To Violate iPhone User Privacy, Recorded Information Without Permission

Adding to Uber’s growing list of worries is a recent revelation that it colluded with Apple to record the personal information of users’ iPhones without their permission. Apparently, the smartphone giant gave the ride-hailing firm powerful tools and access to its devices to undermine the privacy of people who use iPhones to order Uber cabs.

No mention of the backdoor access that Apple gave to Uber is mentioned in any of the documents provided to consumers so that they could agree to it, Business Insider reports. What’s more, this is the kind of powerful capability that the iPhone maker has never given to any other company, which begs the question as to why it was given to Uber.

"Granting such a sensitive entitlement to a third-party is unprecedented as far as I can tell, no other app developers have been able to convince Apple to grant them entitlements they’ve needed to let their apps utilize certain privileged system functionality," a security expert told the publication.

For now, no evidence has been found that Uber used this access to take advantage of clients who used iPhones. However, the simple fact that it was given privileged Apple code that might have been used to violate user privacy is a huge problem for a company that is already being investigated for similar violations and is currently embroiled in a legal battle with a tech giant.

As to what exactly this backdoor access can do, it could be used to potentially record password inputs and even online banking activities, Gizmodo reports. It makes no sense for a legitimate company like Uber to do these things, but the worry is that a hacker might have gotten hold of the codes as well, which would make these risks infinitely more likely than not.