Added safety on your rides with Audio Recording

Audio Recording is currently available in more than a dozen countries throughout Africa, Asia, North America, South America and selected European markets.

In selected EU markets riders can initiate a recording through the in-app Safety Toolkit using their own smartphone, by manually tapping the button every time they want to record. The other party in the vehicle will not be notified at the time of recording, though notice has been given to all users that this capability is available, and drivers will see a message in their app informing them that audio may be recorded on their trip.

Don’t see Audio Recording in your Safety Toolkit? Check that you have the latest version of the app.

Uber is committed to building technologies that help you feel safer using the app. The Audio Recording feature is intended to help encourage safe and comfortable interactions while on a trip, determine what happened, and identify the best response after a safety-related incident.

To maintain the privacy of parties in the vehicle, the recorded content is encrypted and neither riders, drivers, nor Uber can listen to it.

To learn more about our approach to privacy, please see our Privacy Notice.

If you are notified that a trip may be recorded, you can always cancel the trip if you feel uncomfortable or don’t want to be recorded.

We take user privacy very seriously and limit any review of an audio recording to a dedicated Safety team at Uber. If we receive a recording that is not relevant to a safety incident, we will delete it.

No. If you don’t submit an incident report with the recording attached, Uber has no access to the recording and it is automatically deleted in 7 days.

No. The phone will take over the microphone, and the recording will automatically stop. You’ll have to start recording again on your own after the call.

No, Uber is not listening as the recording is happening. Uber also cannot listen to the recording unless the user includes it with an incident report.

Other parties in the vehicle will not be notified at the time a recording begins, but drivers will be notified of the possibility of recording when they’re matched with a rider.

In accordance with our law enforcement guidelines and third-party data request policies, and as may be required under applicable laws, Uber may provide the audio recording to third parties with appropriate legal process or in emergency situations.

Recordings are encrypted using AES encryption Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) on the consumer’s device. Only Uber has the key to decrypt the file after it has been submitted to our Safety Support team by a user. Importantly, it is the user’s choice when to record audio and when to share it with Uber.

This will vary based on your mobile phone, but in general 5-7 minutes of recording takes 1 MB of space on your device.

If you need to submit a safety report with a recording attached, we encourage you to be connected to wifi first. Otherwise, your normal data rates will apply.

Share post-trip: a pop-up window will appear at the end of the trip, and you can share with Uber on the spot. Share later: in the app menu, go to your trip history, pick the trip in question, find the recording in your trip details, and share it with Uber.

Please note: you can only share audio with Uber after a trip ends.

A member of Uber’s Safety team will review the report and listen to the contents. Appropriate action will be taken in accordance with our policies.

No, the content is only stored on the device. If you delete it, Uber has no way to recover it.

You can start and stop recording at any time through the Safety Toolkit by selecting the blue safety shield in the app.

For riders, recording will automatically stop shortly after the trip ends.