Uber Driver Texts Kerala Woman on WhatsApp, 'Asks Creepy Questions'

A Kerala woman has come down hard on the ride-hailing service Uber after a driver contacted her on WhatsApp and allegedly asked “creepy” questions. Smriti Kannan, of Kochi, documented the privacy breach on social media, sharing screenshots of the texts that the driver from a past ride sent her.

Muhammad Mishal, who identified himself as an Uber driver, started the conversation by asking if Kannan still remembered him. In response, the passenger said she didn’t, only to learn that he had picked her up from Katrikavadu and dropped her off at a nail salon in Edapally.

When asked why he had been messaging in the first place, since the trip had long been over, Mishal said he wanted to know the “spray” Kannan uses. Following this, he was blocked by the passenger, who later posted the chat online.

“WHAT THE **** @Uber_India how bad are your privacy settings?,” Kannan asked on X. “An Uber driver messages me on WhatsApp and asks me creepy questions. Seriously how safe are women???”

The company has yet to respond to the criticism. However, according to a February 2019 release, to protect the privacy of both the driver and the rider, Uber India uses a phone-number anonymisation feature.

“When a rider and driver contact each other regarding a trip, both phone numbers will be anonymised – meaning that you will no longer see each other’s personal contact details.,” an Uber spokesperson explained at the time.

The call first goes through an anonymisation provider, which uses Indian landline numbers. This third party provides a masked sequence, which is what either caller sees instead of the personal phone number of the person with whom they are speaking.

That said, Kannan's horror isn't unheard of, with the users of many other apps having previously reported such experiences.

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