Happy Data Privacy Day!

Celebrated annually on January 28, Data Privacy Day is dedicated to increasing awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data, and enabling trust. Every year, Uber marks the occasion with a full week of internal and external activities, including a message to users in our apps to remind them of the importance of protecting and respecting privacy all year round.

For Uber, Data Privacy Day isn’t just for talking about privacy, but also taking action to pursue our mission of being a trusted steward of our users’ personal data in every market where we operate. On Data Privacy Day last year, we published our Privacy Principles externally. Modeled after the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), these Principles help our teams to do more than what is legally required with our user’s data. Indeed, our first Principle incorporates one of Uber’s values: We Do the Right Thing. You can learn more about our Privacy Principles in our 2021 ESG report.

But talking about principles isn’t enough: you need to bring them to life.  Uber has demonstrated our commitment to and leadership in data privacy by releasing a series of privacy and data security features to help users understand and control how we use their data. 

You can find these features and settings right in the Uber app in our new Uber Privacy Center. This in-app hub, located in the settings menu of the Uber Rider, Driver, and EATS apps, makes it easier than ever for our users to understand how we use their data to enable convenient and safe transportation and deliveries, and how to manage settings in their control. 

The Privacy Center includes:

  • Privacy Overview, which describes Uber’s approach to collecting and using personal data, answers users’ most frequent questions regarding our data practices, and provides graphics that show how Uber uses each of the types of data that it collects.
  • Download Your Data, which allows users to download a copy of personal information that we collect or create when they use our services.
  • Explore Your Data, which provides a summary of each user’s use of Uber apps, including how long they’ve been an Uber user, number of trips and orders, rating, and account profile information.
  • View as Driver, which shows riders the information seen by their drivers so they can be confident that Uber is sharing only what is necessary to enable their ride.
  • View What Powers Your Experience, which shows riders how Uber uses their data to enable each step in their trips.
  • Personalized Ads and Data Settings, which allow users to choose how Uber uses their data for targeted advertising and analytics.
  • Uber Eats and Postmates Ad Settings, which allow users to choose how we personalize ads within the Uber Eats and Postmates apps.

And we’re just getting started! As Uber continues to be an industry leader in privacy innovation, we will add new and expanded features and information to the Privacy Center.

Finally, there is much more to living up to our Privacy Principles than we can include in the Privacy Center. We’ve made privacy a shared responsibility of all employees and maintain a robust privacy review process that applies throughout the entire lifecycle of a product, feature, or program. 

So, while we may save the cake for Data Privacy Day, we continue to find new ways to celebrate privacy, and to be a good steward of our users’ data, every day.