Uber Technologies Inc. have reached an agreement with the New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman today regarding Uber's data management. Previously, Uber is using a system which allow its employee to obtain sensitive data especially regarding Uber drivers and customers' location.
According to the settlement, Uber will pay a total of $20,000 in fine to the attorney general and will be required to restrict its usage too. According to The Verge, current setting inside Uber system contains a "God View" mode which shows the aerial view of all their driver and passenger's location on the map without the consent of the user.
Uber, whose currently evaluated at $62.5 billion was also required to tighten its cyber security because the current system would take Uber months to detect any data loss. This comes after the company was previously hacked and the names and license number of its driver was exposed to another party as reported by the New York Daily News.
According to an accusation made to the company by the attorney general, Uber also admitted that the company purposely delayed informing its driver regarding the breach putting their safety at risk.
Part of the agreement regarding security tightening, Uber will encrypt driver's geo-location information and also apply a series of other authentication requirements. Besides that, Uber will also limit the number of employees that will be allowed to use the "God View" mode.
Market Watch also reported that Uber had been adopting a stricter security after its previous attack even before the settlement which exposed 50,000 of its drivers' information. According to an official email from Uber's spokeswoman, she said that "We are deeply committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of riders and drivers."
The attorney general, Schneiderman is also pleased with the settlement and the commitment shows by Uber throughout this process. According to him "This settlement protects the personal information of Uber riders from potential abuse by company executives and staff, including the real-time locations of riders in an Uber vehicle."
Investigation on Uber's "God View" unregulated use comes under the limelight after a BuzzFeed News reporter reported that Uber executive has been using the system to view her location before their meeting. According to the report, the executive was using the system to locate her because she was 30 minutes late to the meeting. Uber maintained its statement that all executives will still have the right to access the information.
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