by mapi
Tired of being cooped up at home for 6+ weeks because of the pandemic? Well DoorDash wants to know who you are.
If you are like most Americans, you have probably used a delivery or pickup service like Postmates, Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub in those 6+ weeks.
But now DoorDash wants to let businesses know exactly where you are in real-time.
A recent CNET article reveals that customers can opt to share their location with merchants.
“Customers can now opt to share their location with merchants while the DoorDash app is running, so restaurants can be alerted when the customer is approaching and have the food ready on arrival. DoorDash hopes the addition will eliminate customers gathering and waiting in stores for long periods of time to adhere to social distancing guidelines.”
Sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh at the number of ways corporations use a pandemic as an excuse to track people in real-time.
A look at the DoorDash app page reveals no such warnings about opting in. It mentions “No-Contact Delivery” and it mentions “Real-Time Tracking” but that is for customers to track deliveries.
“See when your order will arrive. From food quality to prep-times to traffic to weather, we’ve factored in all the elements that come between you and your food.”
Under their “What’s New” section DoorDash lists minor updates and performance improvements that happened on May 19th., 2020 and that is it. There is nothing on their app page that would tell customers that they can opt in or opt out of being tracked in real-time.
But it does have a “Family Sharing” option which allows six family members to use the app.
In a country gripped with fear, why not let DoorDash and local businesses track your families locations? In fact why not just give them the IP, and MAC addresses of your families phones?
DoorDash’s privacy policy page reveals exactly how they feel about using their app to track you and your family.
“Our Services may change from time to time. As a result, we reserve the right to update or modify this Policy at any time and from time to time without prior notice. If we make any material changes to the way we process your Personal Information, we will notify you before such changes are effective. If you object to any changes you must cease using our Services. We recommend you review this Policy periodically. This Policy became effective on the date indicated at the top of this page. Your continued use of our Services after any changes or revisions to this Policy indicates your agreement to the terms of the revised Policy.“
There is the caveat, we can make any material changes we want to how we track customers and if you don’t like it, stop using our service. And that is exactly how every food delivery and pickup service app works in a nutshell.
DoorDash’s “Location Information” section does a slightly better job of revealing how their app tracks everyone’s phones.
“When you use the Services, we may collect general location information (such as IP address). If you permit the Services to access location services through the permission system used by your mobile operating system (“Platform”) or browser, we may also collect the precise location of your device when the DoorDash app is running in the foreground or background of your device. This information may be used to help you select your delivery address, to provide more accurate deliveries of your orders, to provide recommendations to you, and to enhance your user experience and improve the services.”
This is important because if you signed up for the “Family Sharing” option it can track everyone’s cell phone regardless of their age. How is that for a minor update?
Remember corporations have no obligation to stop tracking you and your family. Stooping to using the pandemic as an excuse to justify tracking everyone’s location is standard operating procedure for corporations. So if you do not want to be tracked, do not use food delivery and pickup service apps. Go to your local restaurants’ website and phone in your order, then drive down and pick it up.