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Comment by honkhonkpants | Hacker News Reader

Yeah REALLY obnoxious. I was just disabling this after another Uber ride. They do not provide the option to enable location services only when the app is running on screen. I think it might be nice if iOS presented this option regardless of what Uber wants.

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> I think it might be nice if iOS presented this option regardless of what Uber wants.

I delete any application that requires all-or-nothing location privileges; if Uber acts this way now I'm done using Uber.

Being able to make it such that location services are an all-or-nothing proposition when there is clearly support for "only when using" in iOS annoys me to no end. The fact Apple doesn't do this is what is actually alarming, given their stance on "privacy".

>>I delete any application that requires all-or-nothing location privileges; if Uber acts this way now I'm done using Uber.

This is the calculated risk Uber is taking. Presumably they believe that they will only lose a tiny sliver of their user base over the all-or-nothing approach. Now that they're well past the "early adoption" phase in many markets this is a "smart" corporate play.

I am aware of the strategy behind Uber's move. My comment above is "count me out".

I doubt they'll lose even 1% of their installed userbase over this change.

On one hand I agree with you, but it wouldn't work as a unilateral policy. There are definitely apps (such as a weather widget, for one example) that lose major functionality if you don't allow location even when not technically in the app. Either way, I won't be using Uber anymore for this reason.

I denied permission to location as soon as this change happened with the intention of enabling and disabling before each ride.

It's now more convenient to use competitors apps, though, and i haven't actually used uber since the change.

I switched to Lyft because of this.

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