While the Facebook scandal continues to hold court all over the world, here is the second case of "data breach" for another of the giants of Silicon Valley.
According to a statement released by Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Uber would have violated the sensitive data of over twenty million drivers of the digital transport service: names, e-mail addresses, telephone contacts and driver's license numbers.
The fact dates back to 2016, and the company founded by Travis Kalanick would have done nothing to report the incident.
It wouldn't be the first time for Uber. Already in 2014 a scandal involved 57 million customers. Four years ago the company tried to cover up the fact paying a ransom paltry $100 to hackers. The FTC is still investigating the matter.
Maureen Ohlhausen, president of the FTC, commented on the new complaint: “After deceiving consumers about privacy and security, Uber has compounded its misconduct, by failing to notify the Commission that it suffered another data breach in 2016 just as the Commission was investigating the 2014 breach.”
What is therefore being discussed is the attitude of Kalanick's company, which has repeatedly tried to hide what happened.
News relating to the extent of the possible sanctions has not yet filtered out but, interpreting the words of the president of the FTC, they will in all probability arrive.
What is certain is that for Uber the last two years have been marked by a series of scandals and incidents that have undermined its reputation, leading to the resignation of Kalanick, who left the command to Dara Khosrowshahi.
Updates
On Friday 13 April, following the publication of the article, Uber announced that it had signed an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission to close the two "data breach" investigations of 2014 and 2016.
Therefore, the risk of possible sanctions has been averted. The agreement provides for a series of obligations and fulfilments for Uber to better protect user data and requires the US giant to communicate any violations to the competent authorities within a maximum of 10 days of their discovery.
