Regulators press Uber on cover-up

STRUGGLING ride-hailing firm Uber faces a fresh regulatory crackdown after disclosing it paid hackers $100 000 (R1.38 million) to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from about 57 million accounts.

Discovery of the US company’s cover-up of the incident resulted in the firing of two employees responsible for its response to the hack, Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced co-founder Travis Kalanick as chief executive in August, said.

“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Khosrowshahi said in a blog post.

Britain’s data protection authority said yesterday that concealment of the data breach raises huge concerns about Uber’s data policies and ethics.

“Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies,” deputy commissioner of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, James Dipple-Johnstone, said in a statement.

Current British law carries a maximum penalty of £500 000 (R9.19-million) for failing to notify users and regulators when data breaches occur.

The stolen information included names, e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers of Uber users around the world, and the names and licence numbers of 600 000 US drivers, Khosrowshahi said.

Uber did not say what other countries might be affected.

Khosrowshahi said Uber had begun notifying regulators.

The New York attorney-general had opened an investigation, a spokeswoman said.

Regulators in Australia and the Philippines said they would also look into the matter.

Known for its combative stance with local taxi regulators, Uber has faced a stream of top-level executive departures over issues from sexual harassment to data privacy and driver working conditions, which forced its board to remove Kalanick in June.

In recent months, London’s transport regulator stripped Uber of its licence to operate, citing the company’s failure to deal with public safety and security issues, although Uber is appealing against the decision and the new chief executive has held talks with Transport for London to resolve the stand-off.

The agency said it was seeking more information.

“We are pressing them for the full details of what has happened so that we can be satisfied that all the right protections are in place,” a Transport for London spokesman said.