BATON ROUGE, LA – Attorney General Jeff Landry today announced a multi-state settlement with Uber, awarding millions of dollars back to the 50 states and the District of Columbia – including $854,914.21 to Louisiana.

In late 2016, Uber learned that hackers had gained access to some personal information Uber has on their drivers, including drivers’ license information pertaining to approximately 600,000 drivers nationwide. Instead of following the law and contacting states to notify their residents, Uber failed to report this breach in a timely manner. Their failure to notify then prompted this suit and settlement.

“Those who sign up to drive for Uber should not be taken for a ride when it comes to their personal information,” said General Landry. “I am committed to protecting Louisiana citizens’ right to privacy; and this settlement should serve as a warning to any company that does not protect the personal information of our State’s people.”  

The settlement between Louisiana and Uber requires the company to:

·        Comply with Louisiana data breach and consumer protection law regarding protecting Louisiana residents’ personal information and notifying them in the event of a data breach concerning their personal information; 

·         Take precautions to protect any user data Uber stores on third-party platforms outside of Uber;

·         Use strong password policies for its employees to gain access to the Uber network;

·         Develop and implement a strong overall data security policy for all data that Uber collects about its users, including assessing potential risks to the security of the data and implementing any additional security measures beyond what Uber is doing to protect the data;

·         Hire an outside qualified party to assess Uber’s data security efforts on a regular basis and draft a report with any recommended security improvements. Uber will implement any such security improvement recommendations; and

·         Develop and implement a corporate integrity program to ensure that Uber employees can bring any ethics concerns they have about any other Uber employees to the company, and that it will be heard.

Louisiana is one of the few states that achieved payment for impacted drivers, who will receive $100 each. Eligible drivers are those drivers whose driver’s license numbers were accessed during the 2016 breach. Some of those drivers may not still be driving for Uber today. A settlement administrator will be appointed to provide notice and payment to eligible drivers. Details of that process will be announced at a later date.

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