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    She was chatting with friends in a Lyft. Then someone texted her what they said
    Futurology

    She was chatting with friends in a Lyft. Then someone texted her what they said

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    22 Comments

    1. CommonRagwort on

      It looks like Lyft is recording conversations that happens in their cars now. Welcome to a future where everything you say is recorded so you can receive ads based on what you said.

      Too be fair, Lyft said they are testing conversation recording in some cities but it’s for security purposes, not advertising. They also blamed this driver for this incident and said it’s not part of the program they are testing.

      How long before conversation recording for “security” becomes recording for advertising?

    2. emongu1 on

      Are people still surprised that phones are spying on us? Because they are, all the time, even if you don’t personally have one. The batman movie wasn’t so far off.

    3. Festering-Fecal on

      They make faraday bags for phones. I can actually see a future where people don’t carry around phones everywhere like there’s a growing trend of offline devices that do music take photos etc… but are not phones.

    4. lord_mixalot on

      I have been in plenty of Ubers/Lyfts/Taxis that have security cameras in them. So I’m not sure how an audio recording is any different to that. The fact that they sent a transcript to her feels creepy.

      And there definitely should be a notice in the car saying that you are being recorded.

    5. ak_intl on

      A simple explanation could be: driver has his the “message rider” feature open in his app, and somehow hit the voice to text button. While they are driving along, it’s transcribing the conversation and the driver doesn’t notice. When she got out of the car, he tried to end the ride and inadvertently hit send, which sends a SMS through a masked number. This would explain why when she called the number it said “your driver is not available”.

    6. AnybodySeeMyKeys on

      I tell my children this all the time: If you have a smartphone turned on, assume that what you’re saying is being recorded.

      A few years ago, I was talking to a client on Skype. We were looking at various news web sites.

      I get along with this client so, somehow, we were cracking jokes about AmWay.

      Two screen refreshes later, I’m looking at an Amway ad. I point this out to Randall who says, “No way.” Then he goes to a different website and, boom, AmWay ad.

      I stopped using Skype after that. Not that other video chat services are much better about privacy, but at least they’re more discreet.

    7. Ignoble66 on

      i watched the last three holes of the masters today i wake up and my reddit is filled with golf stuff…if youre listening fuck all of you

    8. FrodoCraggins on

      I’m not sure why this is a story. This is an actual feature Uber offers that’s right there in plain text in the security settings. Lyft offering it too shouldn’t be a surprise.

    10. Douude on

      People remember, privacy laws tend to excempt cars from these laws.
      Even if you connect your phone with your car inside EU, their GDPR doesn’t apply to cars. Let that sink in, it will only get worse

    11. Generico300 on

      I mean, you’re recorded everywhere you go. There are cameras everywhere, and honestly it makes sense to record what goes on in a ride-share. It provides clear evidence if there’s an incident.

    12. KB_Sez on

      Well, it’s a good thing. This happened in Canada because they still have privacy laws that will probably be enforced.

    13. Mdbutnomd on

      ‘”I was like ‘who is tapping me?'” Ahuja said.’ I don’t think that means what they think it means.

    14. 0nlyhooman6I1 on

      Can everyone just think for themselves for a minute… which uber isn’t recorded these days for the drivers safety. Look at all those crazy asses on YouTube that get posted after crashing out against the uber… you think they gave consent? This is standard. The only creepy thing is that they sent her a transcript

    15. doctormink on

      I have had this happen a million times on my iPhone. I’ve been texting with someone, put the phone aside but accidentally hit the little microphone icon. I leave it for a while then go back to my phone and see a transcription of everything I said recently in the text box and it’s poised to be sent to the last person I texted with. I’ve avoided some embarrassing texts by deleting everything instead of accidentally sending it. As for it getting sent, from the radio report drivers text customers via an intermediary. So they don’t have the customer info, but they have access to a number that forwards the message to the appropriate person.

      It’s entirely possible driver had texted passenger via intermediary, fumbled with the phone and hit the microphone icon, recorded and then ending up hitting “send.”

      So a glitch and not national headline news.

    16. empty-alt on

      We are surprised by this? I mean maybe it was ok to be surprised in 2010. But 2025??? Really? Wait till you see what advertisers know about you. It will make that little transcript look like nothing.

    17. sten45 on

      All Lyft is getting on me is “are you …driver name…, how you living brother?” “Yeah, airport.” “ Thanks, for the ride have a great day.”

    18. Jawaka99 on

      Unfortunately this is what happens when there’s so many ambulance chasers out there

    19. CrashnServers on

      I would feel about as free to converse as sitting in a Dr waiting room. Although some people really share way too much about themselves 😆

    20. Ahamdan94 on

      DiDi has been asking me for microphone access since 2021. The answer is always no.

    21. Epyx911 on

      We have one person consent in Canada. However, for those wondering, there are exceptions like the person recording needs to be part of the conversation. The driver likely was not…ie him asking work questions is not being part of their conversation.

    22. Dirty_Dragons on

      >”These ride-sharing apps are big companies and people have a lot of sensitive conversations within cabs and they feel like they’re secure,” said Ahuja.

      Yes, a random person’s private car is exactly where you can find top security and would belive a conversation to be the most secure.