Stop surveillance-based advertising!
Petition to the Federal Trade Commission:
Uber is preparing to run advertisements based on private user location data. It’s a threat to privacy rights and consumer rights. Please investigate and ban this type of surveillance-based advertising.
Uber wants to sell targeted ads on its app using your location data.1 Where we take Ubers for medical treatment, worship, leisure, and work should not be tracked, collected, and used for profit.
It’s a direct threat to privacy rights and could expose private, personal data to any number of entities, companies, and nefarious actors.2 That’s a danger to everyone’s personal information, especially in an age of enhanced government surveillance and tracking, and a time when our health care and civil rights are under constant attack from the GOP.
Urge the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate and ban surveillance-based advertising. Uber shouldn’t be able to collect and use our personal location data for ads.
No company should be collecting private location data and using it to maximize profits at our expense.
Uber, specifically, is a company that has already mishandled data privacy.3 In 2016, Uber’s chief security officer lied about paying hackers to return data belonging to 57 million users.4
It’s another example of a company prioritizing corporate greed over consumer safety, rights, and privacy. A private company using sensitive location data for advertising sets a dangerous precedent and could lead to more companies profiting from our location data. That’s why we need the FTC to step in and stop this dangerous practice.
Sign the petition: Call on the FTC to ban surveillance-based advertising. No company should profit from personal, private consumer data!
Sources:
- Vice, “Uber Will Start Serving You Targeted Ads Based On Where You Go,” October 19, 2022.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.