Uber has agreed to pay $148 million for a 2016 data breach and cover-up.
The settlement was announced Wednesday by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
Becerra says hackers stole personal information, including driver's licenses, of 600,000 Uber drivers in the U.S., and the names, emails and cell numbers of 57 million riders around the world.
“Rather than notifying the drivers, as is required by law in California, Uber covered up the breach,” he said. “We found that they paid hackers — the hackers involved — they paid them $100,000 in exchange for the hackers' silence.”
California will get $26 million of the $148 million nationwide settlement that was based on the number of Uber drivers in each state.
Uber also agreed to implement other security practices. It will start a Corporate Integrity Program that includes a hotline to report misconduct and hire an outside firm to conduct an assessment of the company's data security.
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