[UPDATE] – Grab Malaysia has contacted TechmonQuay to clarify about it. According to Grab Malaysia, the reason for implementing this feature is because it is a requirement by the government to verify the passengers’ accounts. Rather than capturing the passenger identification card (IC), instead, Grab implements one-off facial recognition.
One of the advantages of capturing selfies is less invasive than the passenger ID card which carries more sensitive information such as DOB and address.
Grab has notified us saying that the selfie image which Grab captures, is only used for passenger identification only. Neither the image nor your account details are shared with the drivers or any other Grab partners. This information is protected under the PDPA law.
Grab will only share its passenger to the authority only if a written application is made to the government. Thinking of the bright side, Grab has managed to reduced passenger-related crimes on its platform by 30% after introducing this safety feature.
Back in March, Grab introduces a new safety feature, where it requires its passengers to take selfies. After a few months, Grab has officially rolled out this safety feature to all Malaysians.
If you notice, when you open your Grab app to book your ride, there will be a pop-up screen requesting you to take a selfie of your face. During the official launch, Grab Malaysia Country head Sean Goh says none of the passenger’s information will be collected. However, it looks like he was wrong about it.
According to Mashable, in the Grab’s Privacy Policy page, it says “Grab may also use your Personal Data in connection with mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, sale of company assets, consolidation, restructuring, financing, business asset transactions, or acquisition of all or part of our business by another company.”
Well, this is something as a passenger we might not want to hear. Anyways, we might need to wait and see how Grab handles this information. What do you think about grab taking selfie feature? Some say it’s not required. What about you?
