Peruvian Wachitaxi App
Peruvian Wachitaxi App | |
---|---|
Short Title | An App Aimed for Safety Improvement of Taxi Passengers Tracks Users and Sells User Data |
Location | Peru |
Date | May 2017 |
Solove Harm | Secondary Use, Surveillance |
Information | Location, Computer Device, Physical Characteristics |
Threat Actors | Wachitaxi app |
Individuals | |
Affected | wachitaxi users, taxi drivers |
High Risk Groups | Driver |
Tangible Harms |
Wachitaxi, an app, that was aimed to improve taxi passengers safety in Peru, was developed and hosted by a private company. According to its Privacy Policy the application collected a large amount of personal data from users and produced statistical reports that the company could later sell to third parties.
Description
In May 2017 the Ministry of Interior of Peru presented “Wachitaxi,” a smartphone application that allowed users to track their taxi trips. Users of this app could save pictures of the driver and the license plate of the vehicle, as well as manually entering their route, and everything through the application to a trusted contact. The trip would be also monitored in real time via GPS and, if the users sent an alert or didn’t reach their destination, all this information would be shared with the police. This was developed as a solution in an attempt to raise safety of taxi passengers.
Wachitaxi was totally developed and hosted by a private company called For Innovation Technology Big Data S.A. (FIT). Although this was not stated in the agreement signed between the Ministry and the company, according to its Privacy Policy the application collected a large amount of personal data from usersSurveillance and produced statistical reports that the company could later sell to third parties.Secondary Use
However, due to the poor quality of the app, the lack of dissemination and, mainly, due to the absence of a comprehensive plan that addresses the problem of citizen security in the use of street taxis, the project was canceled silently a few months later.
Breakdown
Threat: App monitoring taxi trips of users in real time through GPS
At-Risk group: Taxi riders in Peru
Harm: Surveillance
Secondary Consequences: not known
Threat: The app that is aimed to improve the safety of the taxi riders, sells users data to third parties
At-Risk group: Taxi riders in Peru
Harm: Secondary Use
Secondary Consequences: not known