• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 5, 2014

Both companies also reportedly stonewalled when asked about which employees had access to users' real-time geolocations via a “God view” (Uber's terminology) tool.

The hearing in New York comes just a few weeks after a journalist for BuzzFeed reported that her whereabouts were tracked by a company employee. The journalist said she took an Uber car to the company's New York office, where she learned upon arrival that she was tracked while en route.

That wasn't the first time Uber was accused of monitoring passengers without their permission. Three years ago, entrepreneur Peter Sims blogged that the company disclosed his whereabouts to a roomful of party guests in Chicago.

He said that was heading to Penn Station in an Uber vehicle when he began receiving text messages from a partygoer who appeared to know his exact location. “The party featured a screen that showed where in NYC certain 'known people' (whatever that means) were currently riding in Uber cabs,” he wrote.

The companies are also facing questions from Capitol Hill.

In late November, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick to clarify the company's privacy practices, including how it uses the “God view” tool.

This week, Franken sent similar questions to Lyft. “Consumers must be able to make informed decisions about whether and with whom they share personal information, and must be assured that when such information is shared it will receive the utmost protection,” Franken wrote. “In few places is the importance of this as apparent as with companies, such as Lyft, that employ new technologies and rely on the transmission of sensitive data.”

He specifically asked for information about which employees at Lyft can access users' ride-location information.

When an account is terminated, why isn’t all related information deleted as soon as pending charges or other transactional disputes are resolved?” he asked.

The lawmaker asked Lyft to respond by the end of the year.