A data breach affecting hundreds of thousands of drivers was at the center of a lawsuit against a rideshare company Monday.
Uber acknowledged the 2016 data breach that affected some 600,000 drivers in a statement released Nov. 21.
City Attorney Mike Feuer was at the helm of the suit.
The lawsuit claims the company neglected to notify customers of the breach and instead choose to pay the hackers to destroy the data and pressuring them to enter into nondisclosure agreements to keep quiet about it.
Uber announced the breach in November, 13 months after it occurred.
"We allege Uber violated California law, and public trust, when it hid this massive data breach,'' Feuer said. "If any company should know better, it's Uber, which reached a previous settlement after allegedly failing to provide timely notice to its users about an earlier security breach. Uber and other companies holding vast amounts of private data need to safeguard it -- and immediately come clean if the information is compromised.''
Uber's CEO released a statement prior to the suit, saying forensic experts believed the following information about drivers was not hacked:
- trip location history
- credit card numbers
- bank account numbers
- Social Security numbers
- dates of birth
But, the hackers were able to download information on U.S. drivers including the drivers' names and license numbers.
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Any U.S. drivers concerned they may be affected can learn more here.
About 57 million Uber app users around the world were also affected by the breach, with hackers getting hold of names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. Uber users can learn more at this site.
The site indicated that users did not need to take any action.
Uber's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said two people had been fired over the incident.
The company was also notifying drivers individually whose license numbers were hacked.
Khosrowshahi acknowledged that the company was taking steps to address why users and drivers were not notified when the breach occurred a year prior.
City News Service contributed to this report.
