According to the Dutch data watchdog, Uber has violated the GDPR:
The Dutch data protection authority (DPA) has hit Uber with a €290mn fine for transferring personal European driver data to the US.
According to the DPA, the transfers constituted a "serious violation" of the EU's GDPR, as they failed to provide the necessary safeguards for data storage outside the block.
Following an investigation, the DPA found that, between August 2021 and November 2023, Uber was transferring and storing sensitive data to US servers without the additional protection tools required by the GDPR.
The data included taxi licences, account and payment details, IDs, photos, and even criminal or medical records.
[...] The investigation was prompted by a complaint from over 170 French drivers to local human rights organisation Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH). LDH then filed a complaint to France's data protection watchdog CNIL.
According to the GDPR, companies processing data across the EU must answer to a single privacy authority, located in the country where a business has its European headquarters. As Uber's base is in the Netherlands, the DPA led the probe.
The DPA said that Uber has now stopped the practice. It's also going to appeal the decision.
This is the third fine the Dutch watchdog imposes on Uber. In 2018, the DPA hit the company with €600,000 for failing to notify the agency on time over a data breach in 2016. And as of January this year, Uber is also facing a €10mn fine (again) for violating privacy rules, which it has appealed.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday August 27 2024, @05:53PM (5 children)
When YOU break the law several times, at some point the judge decides fines are not enough and you deserve to cool off in the pokey for a while, to teach you a lesson.
And you know what? Every time I read about those tech companies trying the same shenanigans over and over, hoping they won't get caught each time, it's obvious legality is just a cost issue to factor in their expense sheet for them.
It's high time company officers became personally liable for what the companies they administer do. As in, if you're the CEO of a company that repeatedly breaks the law and wastes the court's time, YOU get to cool off in the pokey. And you're barred from becoming an officer in any company for a number of years after you get out too, for good measure.
Too harsh? Given most CEOs' obscene salaries, I don't think a little personal skin in the corporate game is too much to ask. Do you?
Implement that and see how fast the tech bros will make their companies behave impeccably overnight.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AnonTechie on Tuesday August 27 2024, @07:23PM (2 children)
I think the French are doing exactly what you suggest, by arresting Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram:
https://apnews.com/article/telegram-pavel-durov-arrest-2c8015c102cce23c23d55c6ca82641c5 [apnews.com]
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2024, @04:08AM (1 child)
That isn't the same. Telegram can just appoint a new CEO and carry on with business as they see fit. The whole point of a corporation is to diffuse things such that the control and liability for the company is diffused among the investors.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2024, @07:43AM
Here is some hyperbole which illustrates that to a tee:
https://boingboing.net/2024/08/28/tom-the-dancing-bug-news-of-the-times-accused-burglar-incorporates-self.html [boingboing.net]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 27 2024, @08:10PM
In principle, yeah. In practice, I can't view 290 million euros as a paltry overlookable sum. You gotta have some real good business-making to do with that user data to make up that much.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2024, @08:44PM
Welcome to America...where companies can donate billions to their favorite politicians because companies are made up of individuals and voting with your wallet is "free speech", but those same individuals don't get punished when they break they law....the companies just get administrative fines.
Or even worse, you just open up a company in some other country (like Ukraine) and then send billions of dollars over there because you've convinced the dumb populace that taxation isn't theft, and we...like...totally need to fund a proxy war against Russia....and then have that countries leaders siphon off some cash for you and give your family members high-paying no-work board seats like the Biden crime family does...
(Score: 2) by Username on Wednesday August 28 2024, @02:54PM
It's a website where you can book a taxi correct? Should they just stop doing business there? Hire additional staff at every little town's jurisdiction?