The Netherlands has fined ride-hailing service Uber €290 million for transferring data about European drivers to the US. This is a record fine for such an offence
NOS writes about it.
The Dutch data protection authority claims that Uber has been transferring driver data to American servers for more than two years. This is a serious violation of European data protection legislation.
The case was initiated after a complaint by 170 French drivers. Uber is fined by the Dutch regulator, because that is where the companyʼs European headquarters are located.
Uber shared the geolocations, photos, transaction details, IDs and sometimes medical and criminal records of European drivers using the service. The information was not sufficiently protected.
The company said that they will appeal the fine, as they consider it undeserved and unfair. Uber officials said there was "some uncertainty" about European privacy rules, but the company still followed them.