One of the Uber app feature lets customers share their ETA, via an SMS, with their friends and family during a ride. But now, Uber shared ride data links will expire after 48 hours.

The message that is sent by the Uber customer includes a link to a live map, showing where he or she is during the course of the ride. It is just as the rider has opened the map on his or her smartphone. It is very useful for people, especially women travelling alone at night or through shady locations.

Shortcomings of the App:

Earlier this week, Uber shared ride data links could be discovered on Google, simply by performing a site search of trip.uber.com. The links of the maps showed the details of the route, names of the driver and the rider. It also displayed the exact addresses of the pick-up and destination along with the exact date and time.

Uber shared ride data links went public on Google and the company said:

“This is not a data leak. We have found that all these links have been deliberately shared publicly by riders. Protection of user data is critically important to us and we are always looking for ways to make it even more secure.”

According to the company, Uber shared ride data links were accessible publicly through search engines because they had been shared online by the people who had received them. The company isn’t pulling the feature from the app rather it has decided to tweak the system so that all shared links are expired after two days.

The tweaks done by the company can already be seen online with the website reading, “Page not found,” for the links that displayed maps on Thursday.