Apple ‘gave Uber unprecedented access to iPhones’

California: Apple granted ride app Uber “totally unprecedented” permission allowing its app to read iPhone screens even when only in background use, it has been alleged.

Will Strafach, a security researcher, has reported that Apple gave Uber an undocumented private app permission allowing it access to the screenrecording feature.

Asked why this was a concern, the security expert tweeted that it apparently gave the company the “ability to read directly from the screen even in background”.

In reply, Melanie Ensign, head of security and privacy communications for Uber, said: “(The software) was used to render Uber maps on iphone & send to Apple Watch before Watch apps could handle it. It’s not in use & being removed. Thx!”

Mr Strafach replied: “Do you have any details on how Uber convinced Apple to grant this entitlement? (totally unprecedented).”

“Granting such a sensitive entitlement to a thirdparty is unprecedented as far as I can tell, no other app developers have been able to convince Apple to grant them entitlements they’ve needed to let their apps utilise certain privileged system functionality, ” he said.

An Uber spokesman said the software was only used for a short period on an old version of the Apple Watch app and had not been in use for some time. Spokesman said: “It enabled the app to run the memory-intensive rendering of maps on the iPhone & then send the image to the Watch app. It was never used for any other purpose and has been non-functional in our code for quite some time.

“The memory limitation of Apple Watch was fixed by subsequent updates in the OS (operating system) and we’ve issued an update to our app to remove the (software) completely.” It comes days after a “constructive” meeting between Uber’s new boss and London’s transport commissioner.