Uber Technologies Inc., the global taxi hailing startup, is facing fresh troubles as fallout from the massive data breach. The year long cover up led to multiple lawsuits and government probes into the company across the globe.
Australia, Britain, United States and Philippines have already authorized an investigation into the workings of the company and its response to the breach. Some US lawmakers also called for Congressional Hearings into the matter and implored the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into the breach. US Senator Richard Blumenthal also took to Twitter calling the FTC to investigate Uber’s behavior.
Uber states the company has already begun discussions with the FTC regarding the exposed data. An FTC spokesman said, “We are aware of press reports describing a breach in late 2016 at Uber and Uber officials’ actions after that breach. We are closely evaluating the serious issues raised.“
After Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi disclosed the hack on Tuesday, the company also began notifying the 57 million affected drivers and passengers and provided free identity theft monitoring for drivers. However, the actions taken by the company seem to be too little too late.
Majority of the states in the USA have data breach notification statutes that require a company subject to such a data theft to notify their customers and other parties about the hack. In this regard, the attorneys general of New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri and Connecticut have initiated an investigation regarding Uber’s possible violation of these laws.
The Deputy Commissioner of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, James Dipple-Johnstone, said “If UK citizens were affected, then we should have been notified so that we could assess and verify the impact on people whose data was exposed.” Failing to notify users and regulators when data breaches occur, according to British law, carries a maximum penalty of £ 500,000. “Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies,” Dipple-Johnstone further added.
Currently, Uber is in talks with Japan based venture capital firm SoftBank for a $ 10 billion investment. VCCircle reported SoftBank is planning to stick to its agreement to invest in Uber but may seek better terms. However, Uber and SoftBank have started advertising to find investors willing to sell their stock.
