Uber Agrees to New FTC Settlement Over 2016 Breach Disclosure

Uber has agreed to an expanded settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which last year charged the ride-sharing company for deceiving customers with its privacy and data security practices. The new settlement takes into account Uber's massive 2016 data breach.

In the original settlement, proposed in August 2017, the FTC reported Uber failed to live up to claims that it closely monitored employees' access to rider and driver data, and that it implemented measures to secure personal data on third-party cloud servers.

The FTC later learned Uber had failed to disclose a significant breach of user data that occurred in 2016 while it was investigating this settlement. As a result, it has updated its complaint to note that Uber knew about the 2016 breach and paid the attackers $100,000 through a "bug bounty program" to keep quiet. The breach was disclosed a year after it occurred, in Nov. 2017.

In the new agreement, Uber is compelled to disclose future incidents involving consumer data and submit all reports from required third-party audits of its privacy program. It must retain certain records related to bug bounty reports of flaws that could compromise users' data. Uber could be subject to civil penalties if fails to share future incidents with the FTC.

Read more details here.

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