Scooter Rides Have Turned Into a Data Privacy Issue for Cities

Every time someone rides a shared scooter in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, or one of dozens of cities around the world, whatever company operates the vehicle takes note of where they went and how they got there, then sends that information to local officials. The idea is to allow cities to keep tabs on how well scooter companies are adhering to regulations—such as commitments to serve low-income neighborhoods—or to get info on where to plan future bike lanes.

Local governments see controlling such data as key to rebalancing the power dynamics with private mobility companies. The sudden emergence of ride-hailing left private companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. in charge of huge troves of data, which at times were used to thwart regulators, as with Uber’s Greyball project. Officials in LA wanted the government to exert more control over bike- and scooter-sharing services when they took off in 2018. That year, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation issued permits with strict rules that required data sharing via new open source software; dozens of other cities adopted a similar approach.