[davweb]

It's easy to accidentally hit the microphone button that appears for any text field in almost all smartphone apps. The phone then transcribes any speech it hears and enters it into the field. I've done this.

It's not hard to imagine a scenario where the driver had the message passenger view open in the Lyft app and accidentally recorded the conversation this way. This probably happens a lot but this time the driver also accidentally sent it rather than deleting it.

This seems much more likely than a company recording someone without their consent but also texting them the transcription.

[jmb99]

I was in an uber (in Canada) yesterday, and the app had a tiny message in the top right corner that “this ride is being recorded” (or something to that effect), which was only displayed after the driver picked me up. When tapped, it showed a screen that the ride was being recorded for passenger and driver safety, and that recordings were only available to uber support of the driver chose to send them.

So clearly it’s not out of the question for something like this to happen.

[5555624]

In the past year, a number of times when I've arranged for a Lyft ride (Virginia, US), a notice has popped up that the driver has a camera and will be recording the ride for passenger and driver safety. Most of those rides have had cameras; but, not all of them. It's always prompted me to ask the driver about it.Some use them all the time, some said they only used them at night or on weekends.

[gruez]

Even before this warning, I've seen Ubers/taxis with cameras in them, along with an accompanying warning sign.

[HPsquared]

That actually makes perfect sense. It's a reminder that we are all now surrounded by microphones that may or may not be recording.

[smitty1e]

Welcome to the Panopticon.

In some sense, the "Dark Ages" preceding the Internet had an Edenic innocence about them.

[belter]

> This seems much more likely than a company recording someone without their consent but also texting them the transcription.

Where have we seen something similar before? Always assume the worst technical messups, instead of crediting corporations

"Amazon's Alexa sent 1,700 recordings to the wrong person" - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazons-alexa-sent-1700-recordi...

[Suppafly]

>It's easy to accidentally hit the microphone button that appears for any text field in almost all smartphone apps.

This. I do it pretty often, most apps have their own icon for it, plus the keyboard itself also has an icon for it. I actually use it a lot of times to send texts intentionally, but often have to start over because it picks up background speech from nearby people or the tv and messes up what you're trying to input.

[suyash]

Or it could be a feature in the Lyft app that they said it was not the case but who believes them...

[gruez]

If it's in app, there would be an obvious microphone consent pop up and usage indicator.

[lambertsimnel]

If the conversation was recorded with the microphone on the driver's phone, and the Lyft has different apps for drivers and passengers, mightn't the microphone consent only appear to the driver, and not to the passenger?

[hulitu]

> It's easy to accidentally hit the microphone button that appears for any text field in almost all smartphone apps.

UX failure. Together with the fact that you cannot disable it.

[TiredOfLife]

Next you will tell me that Earth isn't flat and that people have beem to the Moon.