Protect cab passengers' personal data

Protect cab passengers' personal data

My friend has been harassed by a taxi driver via SMS and WhatsApp.

We believe that this may be due to an earlier phone booking, which was cancelled as the driver had been directed to a wrong pick-up location by the booking operator.

My friend has since made a complaint to the relevant taxi company.

The incident, however, has highlighted a problem: How do we ensure that our home addresses and mobile numbers do not get abused by errant taxi drivers?

With private taxi operators now on the scene, should the passing on of passengers' information to drivers be regulated?

We need to consider whether there is a even a need to pass on mobile phone numbers to the drivers.

I am sure there is technology that exists today which allows drivers to contact passengers without having the latter's mobile numbers revealed.

I would like to see more being done by taxi companies to assure passengers that the information that has been entrusted to the companies for the sake of convenience, will not fall into the wrong hands.

June Qiu Ling (Miss)


This article was first published on August 8, 2015.
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