Privacy watchdogs in Singapore and the Philippines announced investigations Friday into the newly revealed Uber data breach that went undisclosed for over a year.
Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) and the Philippines’ National Privacy Commission (NPC) separately confirmed opening probes into the Uber breach Friday after the ride-share company revealed that the incident compromised the personal information of hundreds of thousands of customers in either country.
“Uber’s breach has affected a significant number of users in Singapore. The PDPC takes a serious view of data breaches and is investigating whether Uber has breached the data protection provisions of the [Personal Data Protection Act],” said a PDPC spokesman, regional media reported. “We expect Uber’s full cooperation in the course of the investigation.”
In the Philippines, meanwhile, privacy regulators summoned Uber officials “to appear before the commission to further explain their data processing operations, particularly the organizational, technical and physical security measures Uber Philippines is implementing to protect Filipino drivers and riders,” NPC Chairman Raymund Liboro said Friday.
“We are looking now at the processes and procedures that Uber claims they have taken to ensure that this matter never happens again,” he said in a statement, Filipino media reported.
Uber revealed on Nov. 21 that the names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million riders and drivers were stolen in a previously undisclosed data breach 13 months earlier. Uber’s CEO said the company subsequently identified the hacker responsible and arranged to have them delete the stolen data.
Around 380,000 Uber users in Singapore and 171,000 Uber users in the Philippines were affected by the breach, federal regulators said Friday.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has said it’s evaluating the Uber breach, and federal regulators have previously opened plans to launch investigation in the U.K. and Australia.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.