Uber agrees to $148M settlement with states over data breach

CHICAGO » Uber will pay $148 million and tighten data security after the ridehailing company failed for a year to notify drivers that hackers had stolen their personal information, according to a settlement announced Wednesday.

Uber Technologies Inc. reached the agreement with all 50 states and the District of Columbia after a massive data breach in 2016. Instead of reporting it, Uber hid evidence of the theft and paid ransom to ensure the data wouldn’t be misused.

“This is one of the most egregious cases we’ve ever seen in terms of notification; a yearlong delay is just inexcusable,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan told The Associated Press. “And we’re not going to put up with companies, Uber or any other company, completely ignoring our laws that require notification of data breaches.”

Uber, whose GPStracked drivers pick up riders who summon them from cellphone apps, learned in November 2016 that hackers had accessed personal data, including driver’s license information, for roughly 600,000 Uber drivers in the U.S. The company acknowledged the breach in November 2017, saying it paid $100,000 in ransom for the stolen information to be destroyed.

The hack also took the names, email addresses and cellphone numbers of 57 million riders around the world. After significant management changes in the past year, Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer, said the decision by current managers was “the right thing to do.”

“It embodies the principles by which we are running our business today: transparency, integrity, and accountability,” West said. “An important component of living up to those principles means taking responsibility for past mistakes, learning from them, and moving forward.”

The settlement requires Uber to comply with state consumer protection laws safeguarding personal information and to immediately notify authorities in case of a breach; to establish methods to protect user data stored on thirdparty platforms and create strong password-protection policies. The company also will hire an outside firm to conduct an assessment of Uber’s data security and implement its recommendations.