New Grab AudioProtect safety feature allows your phone to listen in on the ride

Just weeks after it rolled out GrabShare for visitors coming from Changi Airport, Grab has announced a new safety feature.

Called 'AudioProtect', the new feature will allow a passenger and driver-partner to record audio on their devices via the Grab app while they are on a Grab ride, provided both parties give consent.

Passengers and driver-partners can enable AudioProtect in their account safety settings on the Grab app.

When the ride starts, passengers will see 'AudioProtect: On' in the Grab to indicate that recording has started.

Once AudioProtect is activated, all future rides will be recorded if their fellow passenger or driver-partner has also enabled the feature.

The feature can be disabled using the same steps, any time before a ride starts.

The new feature will be rolled out progressively as part of a trial, starting from March 21, 2023. It is designed to offer users greater peace of mind when they travel on Grab rides by proactively deterring in-person safety incidents from happening while enroute.

Grab states that the new feature will also allow it to resolve safety incidents more quickly by relying on recordings to get a better picture.

These incidents could include accidents and instances of verbal, physical, and sexual harassment and/or abuse.

To ensure that the privacy of users is securely protected, recorded audio files are encrypted and stored on their devices for a maximum of five days before being automatically deleted if no safety-related incident is reported.

The files cannot be accessed by either the passenger or the driver and will only be accessed by Grab's safety team if a safety-related incident occurs.

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This article was first published in sgCarMart.