I’m a huge fan of Uber and Lyft. For the most part, my experiences have been positive, and I generally don’t have many safety concerns about my personal information being compromised while using either app. However, I did uncover a flaw after a recent Uber ride, and I’d like to bring it to light.
In an effort to protect both the driver and the rider’s personal phone numbers, Uber generates a “dummy” number for riders and drivers to communicate before, during, and after the ride.
While blocking the true caller ID of both passengers and drivers results confidentially and certain level of safety, the process is not entirely foolproof.
On my recent trip to Cartagena, my friend and I took an Uber from the airport to the Hyatt Regency Cartagena. During our ride, we spoke with each other, but didn’t engage in conversation with the driver other than saying hello and thank you at the beginning and end of the ride, respectively.
About 10 minutes after my ride concluded, I noticed I had a WhatsApp message (which is tied to my real phone number) from my Uber driver, soliciting me to use his transportation service for an excursion.
While there was no ill-will in his attempt to make extra money, I was stunned that he was able to contact me on my phone number, which is supposed to be private to the driver (and vice-versa).
I immediately started to think about how it was possible. At first I thought that maybe it was a flaw within WhatsApp. Did he copy the burner number and paste it into a WhatsApp message, which then automatically re-routed the message to my real number?
After he responded to my inquiry, I saw that he dialed my number. Though my phone never rang, I have a generic voicemail box set up which spells out my phone number.
He probably called, got sent straight to voicemail, and then took the liberty to message me. It’s a bit creepy knowing that he took the extra step to reach me that way, but I politely let it go and he never messaged me again.
Unwanted solicitations aside, I was more proactively concerned from a safety standpoint moving forward. As someone who uses Uber frequently, it rubs me the wrong way knowing that a driver could access a phone number and uncover a ton of personal details about a person quite easily.
Even if your voicemail wasn’t generic, it could include identifying information about yourself like your full name, occupation, or place of employment. Chances are, your Uber driver probably already knows where you live or work based on where your ride starts or ends.
Bottom Line
Though not all Uber drivers have a ulterior motives, there have been a number of unfortunate and terrible stories. These are just things to consider. Just because Uber uses a randomized number, the call still directs to your real number (including voicemail).
Because of this, I will change my voicemail settings to remove my phone number when someone dials.
Have you ever had a similar issue or privacy breach while using Uber or another ride share program?
So, Uber driver calls you and gets sent to your voicemail which states your number. This is an Uber flaw how?
Not a flaw with Uber – just a friendly reminder that the system directs to your voicemail if you don’t pick up and they may gain access to your real number and contact you that way.
Misleading headline then
Not necessarily. Since Uber advertises that they do keep your phone numbers and contact details confidential. Perhaps a better solution would be if they dummy number stopped ringing after a certain number of rings or played a generic “sorry the person you are trying to reach is unavailable” instead of letting it pick up a voicemail. Of course I don’t know what the tech specs would be surrounding that.
When I first installed uber, I didn’t know that it uses a fictional phone number. I found it very risky, and therefore always used my Google Voice number for services like uber anf Lyft.
Did the driver contact you after the ride? I didn’t think the driver had the option to contact a rider after the ride had ended. This is a good reminder to Uber riders who are waiting on their rides to pick up a call if they don’t recognize the number because it could be your driver trying to locate you.
I’m a driver and a passenger and can’t find an option to contact the driver on completed trips after a ride in the passenger app or contact a passenger on a completed trip in the driver app.
This has me concerned as a driver as well. This should serve as a warning for drivers to remove their phone number in their voicemails as well if they have the number in their greeting.
Hi Gary! Yes he contacted me 10 minutes after the ride ended. I agree that this serves as a warning for both drivers and passengers.
That’s a pretty silly post.
And if you left personally identifiable information on your voicemail message, like “Hi, you’ve reached Angelina at xxx-xxx-xxxx. My social security number is xxx-xx-xxxx and annual salary is $___. If you’d like to find me, I’m probably either at my home address of ___ or my work address of ____. ”
Then retitle the post “Uncovering a Flaw – Uber Drivers can access your social security number, salary, and home and work addresses”. The horror!
Interesting post. It amazes me that the driver went through all of that to contact you after the ride. Perhaps Uber should implement a way to make the anonymized number continuously ring or hang up automatically if a voicemail answers. I can see concerns here.
It’s an interesting post but also feel the headline is misleading. Uber is not providing your number, instead you are.
My uber (and almost everything) is tied to my google voice number. No one needs my real number.
Angelina, please ignore the self righteous comments and THANK YOU for bringing this issue up.
Unbeknownst to me, my phone apparently reset my customized, name-only voicemail to the default greeting with the mobile number – which I would not have caught it if not for your post. Thank you for the headsup!
Likewise, thanks!
Passengers can get ours too.
I had a passenger refuse to tell me where she was at the mall “just come to the bus stop” and got angry when I said I would cancel if she wasn’t willing to tell me what entrance she was near, at least (there’s probably twenty bus stops around that mall).
As I’m driving away she calls and I answer and she yells at me, so I hang up. Took twenty minutes to cancel because every time I’d go to the app, she’d call again which brings phone to front… Kept calling over and over screaming at me. Finally I turned my phonecall feature off and cancelled the ride.
An hour later “her husband” starts calling my real number threatening me. I realized they got my number from my VM default message. Had to call Lyft and the police and long story short good ol’ Arric couldn’t make his bail the next day because he had warrants for drug charges and I laughed and laughed.