Dutch privacy watchdog launches investigation into Uber hack
The Dutch Personal Data Protection Authority is launching an investigation into a massive data breach at Uber last year. The authority only "very recently" received a report from Uber about the hack, in which personal data of 57 million people were stolen, the Volkskrant reports.
In October last year hackers managed to gain access to the personal data of approximately 57 million Uber accounts - some 50 million customers and 7 million drivers of the popular taxi app. Data stolen include names, email addresses and telephone numbers. Uber kept the data breach quiet for over a year, only confirming it earlier this week.
On Wednesday a spokesperson for Uber Nederland refused to comment to RTL Nieuws about how many Dutch people were affected by the hack. Uber currently has around 65 million active users. Given the size of the data breach, it seems likely that Dutch data was among the stolen information.
According to Dutch law, any data breach or hack that affects Dutch persons must be reported to the Personal Data Protection Authority. The Dutch privacy watchdog will now investigate exactly what data was stolen, how it happened and whether Uber reported the hack properly and in a timely manner, according to the newspaper.
