Uber Intelligence, a new function in the ride-sharing apps for its advertising partners, has just recruited you (and everyone else who uses the service) as Intelligence operatives. The company just announced the ‘feature’, a “data and insights platform that gives brands a clearer view of how people move through the world, from the trips they take to the meals they order.”
If you need it spelled out, that means the data Uber has gathered from its users, encompassing travel and meal orders, is up for grabs. It’ll be suitably anonymised (“pseudonymized”, according to Uber), resulting in “a privacy-enhancing way to uncover patterns, understand audiences, and see how marketing connects to real-world actions.”
Uber Intelligence operative
Before you get too miffed that Uber Intelligence will start using the reams of data it has gleaned about your meal habits after a long night at the pub (and the route you took home to get to your comfy bed), you have, technically, agreed to all of this. You’re unlikely to use any of this information yourself, and it seems like the dataset derived from “approximately 38 million daily trips” will be confined to American users at first, but it’ll eventually be combined with the other user data advertisers hold to create a means to “enhance targeting precision, improve campaign performance, and uncover untapped growth opportunities.”
There are other words in there, like ROI and “high-impact audience segments”, and promises to let advertisers “close the loop,” like someone tossed an intern into a LinkedIn meet-and-greet and only let them out again when the light of hope has finally left their eyes, but it boils down to ride-share and meal procurement data being shunted over to the data-hungry. We’re certain Meta will be one of the first in line to discover any ‘audience overlaps’ they can exploit for more ad revenue.
Uber Intelligence partner LiveRamp CEO Vihan Sharma doesn’t shy away from the business-forward, entirely not-optional repurposing of customer data, saying, “LiveRamp is proud to expand the world’s most powerful data collaboration network with innovators like Uber Advertising, which brings unparalleled transaction and behavioral insight to the ecosystem. Together, we’re unlocking better data, better outcomes, and an always-on view of the consumer journey.”
If you can read that statement without feeling the bile rise in your throat, you’re probably ready to post to LinkedIn. Or you work in HR. At least, it seems, Uber Intelligence won’t make money from sending user data to brands. Never mind, there’s probably an indirect revenue stream in there somewhere.
