These are shocking and worrisome allegations, but I do want to hear Uber's response. Perhaps they asked certain well-known users if they wanted their locations to be revealed and there was a miscommunication? It seems unlikely, I admit, but there tend to be two sides to every story.

If the allegations are true and there was no miscommunication, Uber violated its privacy policy and should be held accountable. Note I'm not calling for FTC action, but (again, if this is true) Uber's management owes me and other users an explanation, an apology, and a plan for privacy controls to ensure this doesn't happen again. Firing the person responsible would not be inappropriate. You can read the privacy policy yourself here: https://www.uber.com/legal/usa/privacy#3

It's also a little depressing. I've taken pains to try to get privacy "right" when working on http://recent.io/, including being extremely sensitive about location privacy, and examples like this (again, if true) will make folks less likely to trust apps in general. It's a shame because phone owners will assume that if you can't trust the billion-dollar lawyered-up companies to get privacy right, you surely can't trust the smaller ones. So it becomes safer not to install the apps in the first place. :(