The well-known transportation company Uberhas entered the lobby of Big Data Sellers, along with companies such as Facebook, Google and Visa. The international transportation company of Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, based in San Francisco, which has already registered several drivers in Greece, will begin to trade data on the movements of its customers, such as where they go, where they shop, where they work and anything else they may have as an element in their database.
The whole affair began about a month ago when the company's customers, who are also guests of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, were given the privilege of earning Starpoints whenever they used Uber services. These privileges included free hotel stays, airline miles, gift cards, and even VIP tickets to concerts and sporting events.
All they had to do was link their Uber account to their Starwood Hotels account, thereby agreeing to the management of any information Uber had about them.
Forbes editor Ron Hirson, who is also a frequent Uber and Starwood customer, recently explained why the startup is a really big opportunity, since the company has an 800% growth rate and of course the data it holds in its database is worth a lot.
Although it is clearly stated in the terms of use of the connection of the two services, companies can exploit customers' personal data for marketing purposes, there is nothing wrong with this, although it can become terribly annoying and the customer can at any time request to be removed from these lists. The problem is what happens if these lists fall into the wrong hands?
As mentioned on Safer Internet Day, great care is required from users when giving companies the right to use their personal data and if they have any doubts about the security of businesses, it is better to refuse to use their data.
