You may have just discovered how prolific Apple fanboyism is on HN. If Google did this it'd be a much bigger deal on HN and people would be pointing out how this is why they use Apple products.

All smartphones are a privacy/security shit show, Apple is no exception.

Eh, compared to the “shit show” I just witnessed in the supposed “dark UI” around the new control center toggles, I’m inclined to believe that both sides get their side of crap.

Conversely Hackernews, like many tech sites, also has a million people who have to whine their exaggerated complaints on every Apple article, like how every software suddenly ‘slurps’ their battery, how nothing is ‘snappy’ anymore and how Jobs is spinning in his grave about the latest UI ‘disaster’ and problem’gate’.

Today the walls in the hated ‘walled garden’ are not high enough.

The reality: these exceptions are made in a way that is exposed to external users which is much more transparent than most companies would be. It is stupid that Uber still has access if they don’t need it anymore. If you have to do a demo and it has to work before it is ready you have to make tough decisions.

If FB did this, people would be asking for Zuck's head on the chopping block.

Well, if you take Uber at its word (which I know is difficult) that it was only being used to render maps on the Watch, it doesn't seem like that big a deal to me.

If it's such a non-issue, just ask for the permission! That's what these granular permissions are for. To allow the OS to lock down features to stop naughty apps being naughty but still allow apps we want to have them to do their business.

Sneaking around like this only begs the question: what else aren't they telling you?

Uber has add shown itself to be a very trust worthy company. And respectful of users privacy in the past. /s