The Indian Airforce recently received massive flak on social media for announcing a contract with taxi-hailing service Uber for its personnel and their families. There was an outrage on social media where many users, some armed forces veterans included, raised the issue of data safety. They said that a foreign company like Uber would end up with crucial data regarding the locations, residential addresses and habits of personnel and their family members.
As per a report in Times Now, the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force are currently likely to begin the process of terminating their respective contracts with Uber. Citing government sources, Times Now reported that many in the defence establishment had agreed that the contract with Uber may give rise to data access issues, however, they are even dismayed at the widespread criticism and disrespectful remarks on social media.
In January 2018, a fitness tracking app called Strava was found publicly displaying a heatmap of exercise routes followed by military personnel of the US, UK and Russia in different bases of the world. Social media users had commented that the contract with Uber will one day give rise to a similar situation, especially considering Uber has faced multiple incidents of data breaches in recent years. Uber was even found to have tried to conceal the breaches from their customers.
