If you’re a cash-only Uber rider, you’ll now be required to submit your Facebook account before you can utilize the app.
The in-app feature is now part of the ride-sharing app’s safety protocols. After a driver from another ride-sharing app was slain late last year, Uber developed rider identification, which verifies cash-only signups using Facebook accounts.
According to Uber, “this assures drivers their riders have verified accounts, and builds on Uber’s guidelines, ratings, and reporting systems to help ensure the safety of all users.”
“This is one of the outcomes of the Safety and Security Technical Working Group meetings conducted by the LTFRB together with the TNCs, TNVS leaders, PNP-HPG, MMDA, and Red Cross,” says LTFRB Board Member Aileen Lizada. “This will hopefully provide an additional layer of security for our TNVS drivers who provide service to the riding public.”
“In the Philippines, we don’t have a national ID system, but what we all have is a Facebook account,” says Yves Gonzalez, Uber head of public policy. “We saw that that was one of the rider identification mechanisms we could use, so we rolled it out first in this region.”
When riders sign in with their Facebook name, Uber verifies the account. “The system will check if your Facebook account is legit, if you created it yesterday, if you have friends, if you have posts,” says Gonzalez. “So at the very least we have that layer of security.”
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