Uber is facing government scrutiny around the world in the wake of its admission it concealed a massive data breach affecting 57 million drivers and passengers.
The US$68 billion ride-hailing company on Tuesday acknowledged that hackers had stolen the personal information in October last year and that it had paid them US$100,000 to destroy the information and keep the breach quiet.
The global nature of the breach exposes Uber to potential liability in numerous jurisdictions. Many countries and US states have laws requiring companies to inform individuals if their personal information has been compromised.
Authorities in the US, UK, Australia and the Philippines on Wednesday said they were launching investigations.
“Uber’s announcement about a concealed data breach last October raises huge concerns around its data protection policies and ethics,” British Information Commissioner’s Office Deputy Commissioner James Dipple-Johnstone said. “Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies.”
Philippine National Privacy Commission Chairman Raymund Enriquez Liboro said that the agency had “summoned” Uber to a meeting yesterday to “shed more light about the incident” and to comply with its data privacy laws.
A spokesperson for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has broad authority to take action against companies engaging in deceptive or unfair practices, said the commission was “closely evaluating the serious issues raised” by the breach and Uber’s failure to disclose it.
Uber reached a settlement with the FTC over privacy and data security issues in August.
State attorneys general in New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts confirmed that they were launching investigations.
Uber has not responded to numerous requests for information on the number of countries whose residents were affected by the hack.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Myanmar yesterday published a parliamentary bill proposing the death sentence for those who detain or violently coerce people into working in online scam centers. Internet fraud factories have flourished in Myanmar, part of Southeast Asia’s scam economy, targeting Internet users worldwide with romance and cryptocurrency investment cons. The multibillion-dollar black market attracts many willing employees, but repatriated foreigners have also reported being trafficked to sites in Myanmar and tortured by scam center operators. The draft legislation would allow capital punishment for “violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against another person for the purpose of forcing them to commit online scams.” The
RSS