Dutch Regulators Slap $324 Million Fine on Uber over Driver Data Protection

Uber, a major ride-hailing company, was fined €290 million by Dutch authorities for breaching EU data protection regulations by unauthorizedly sending the personal information of European drivers to the US.

Uber’s data transmission practices were examined when French taxi drivers filed a complaint.

Together with the Dutch DPA, the French data protection authority CNIL worked closely on the inquiry, which eventually turned up serious shortcomings in Uber’s management of private data.

According to the DPA, Uber obtained private information about drivers in Europe, including driver identities, taxi licenses, location data, images, payment information, and identity documents—” and in some cases even criminal and medical data of drivers”

Because driver information was not properly protected, the regulator said that the transfers constituted a “serious violation” of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union.

“Uber did not meet the requirements of the GDPR to ensure the level of protection to the data about transfers to the US. That is very serious,” Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) chairman Aleid Wolfsen said in a statement.

Uber has stated that it strongly disagrees with the ruling, even though the cross-border data transfers in question have subsequently stopped.

Speaking for the company, Caspar Nixon, a spokesman for Uber, called the fine “extraordinary and unjustified,” adding that during what he called a “period of immense uncertainty” over data protection agreements, Uber’s activities were compliant with GDPR.

“But sadly, this is not self-evident outside Europe. Think of governments that can tap data on a large scale.

“That is why businesses are usually obliged to take additional measures if they store personal data of Europeans outside the European Union.

“Uber did not meet the requirements of the GDPR to ensure the level of protection of the data about transfers to the US. That is very serious,” adds Wolfsen.

We earlier reported that Uber and BYD launched a new multi-year agreement on Wednesday, which would place Uber drivers in about 100,000 new electric vehicles built by the massive Chinese company.