NPC taps US trade body on Uber data breach

MANILA, Philippines — The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has sought the assistance of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States in its investigation of the data breach involving transport hailing mobile application Uber.

NPC commissioner said they have tapped the FTC and other privacy regulators worldwide to share information on the data breach involving over 57 million Uber users and drivers.

FTC is an independent government agency tasked to ensure consumer protection in the US. It has started its own investigation on the data breach.

On Thursday, NPC officials met with representatives of Uber Philippines to discuss the data breach.

However, Liboro said Uber officials were not able to provide the commission with vital information, particularly if data of Filipino users were among those stolen.

“We cannot rule out at that this time that any Filipino data was compromised,” said Liboro.

The privacy commissioner said they gave Uber until today to provide vital information about the breach.

“The NPC has reminded Uber that the concealment of a data breach that involves sensitive personal information or information that, under the circumstances, can be used to enable identity fraud, is a criminal offense punishable under the Data Privacy Act of 2012,” said Liboro.

Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi on Wednesday confirmed that a massive data breach happened last year and that it was concealed by its former chief security officer and one of his deputies.

Khosrowshahi said the breach involved the personal data of 50 million users and seven million drivers worldwide.