On Thursday, detailed information about dozens of Uber trips was found searchable on Google, allowing anyone to search through rides in the U.S., France, Russia, Mexico and England.
Links shown through a site-specific search for trips.uber.com on Google allowed for a ride's route, with pickup and drop-off markers, to be seen on Google Maps. A card also showed the first name of the driver, along with information about the car and the license plate number.
Maps searchable through Google appear as they would for drivers and customers through the smartphone app.
Not only that, but the source code for each of the websites, which can be accessed by the public, reveals even more information. Through the code, addresses for the exact pick-up spot can be found, as can addresses for the destination of the ride. Thankfully, things like credit card information, usernames, and passwords are not a part of the information shared.
In essence, through search results and information gleamed through the source code, people could find out a lot about the driver and riders. Some of the information that was shown dates as far back as 2013.
Despite this, user suggests that the information was not a leak of data.
"This is not a data leak. We have found that all these links have been deliberately shared publicly by riders. Protection of user data is critically important to us and we are always looking for ways to make it even more secure" said an Uber spokesperson.
Riders can now continue to share reports about their rides, however links will expire after 48 hours, according to Uber's chief information security officer. The effects of this change can already be seen, with links now leading to a site that says "Page Not Found."
Riders can continue to share their trip links publicly, but now they expire after 48 hours. h/t @mikko
— four (@four) September 4, 2015
