In the wake of a privacy scandal involving ride share company Uber, there's a lot of commotion on social media of users rushing to delete the ride-sharing app from their smartphones.
Emil Michael, senior vice president at Uber, was at the center of the issue. He threatened to dig up dirt on a female journalist's personal life as payback for writing controversial stories about the company. He later apologized for the remarks made in casual conversation.
Another bombshell was dropped earlier this week when a Buzzfeed report stated that one of their reporter's Uber ride was tracked without her permission.
Regardless of what's right and wrong here, one thing is for certain: People are upset and voicing their concerns on social media.
Many in the tech world are uninstalling the app in droves, and sharing their discontent on Twitter and Facebook.
However, what most people don't know is that deleting the app is the first step. Deleting an account is another story.
Don't bother looking for instructions on how to cancel an account on Uber's homepage. It's not even addressed. In order to cancel an Uber account, users need to go through the drawn out process of submitting a support ticket requesting the company to manually delete the account. Here are some good play-by-play instructions.
So this poses the question: How many other apps require "support tickets" in order to delete all personal information?
Turns out Uber is not the only one. Here's a list (and links to more instructions) of some other popular apps that must be contacted to manually delete all information:
-- Tinder -- SnapChat -- Instagram -- Facebook -- Twitter
What's the lesson here? Personal information can linger in cyber-space, and if not properly handled, it can fall in the wrong hands.
Kevin Raposo is the manager of KnowTechie and a tech blogger for UPI. All opinions are his own. @Kevin_Raposo
