Aug 26, 2024Ravie LakshmananGDPR / Data Protection

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has fined Uber a record €290 million ($324 million) for allegedly failing to comply with European Union (E.U.) data protection standards when sending sensitive driver data to the U.S.

“The Dutch DPA found that Uber transferred personal data of European taxi drivers to the United States (U.S.) and failed to appropriately safeguard the data with regard to these transfers,” the agency said.

The data protection watchdog said the move constitutes a “serious” violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In response, the ride-hailing, courier, and food delivery service has ended the practice.

Uber is believed to have collected drivers’ sensitive information and retained it on U.S.-based servers for over two years. This included account details and taxi licenses, location data, photos, payment details, and identity documents. In some cases, it also contained criminal and medical data of drivers.

The DPA accused Uber of carrying out the data transfers without making use of appropriate mechanisms, especially considering the E.U. invalidated the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield in 2020. A replacement, known as the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, was announced in July 2023.

“Because Uber no longer used Standard Contractual Clauses from August 2021, the data of drivers from the E.U. were insufficiently protected, according to the Dutch DPA,” the agency said. “Since the end of last year, Uber uses the successor to the Privacy Shield.”

In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Uber said the fine is “completely unjustified” and that it intends to contest the decision. It further said the cross-border data transfer process was compliant with GDPR.

Earlier this year, the DPA fined Uber a €10 million penalty for its failure to disclose the full details of its data retention periods concerning European drivers, and the non-European countries to which it shares the data.

“Uber had made it unnecessarily complicated for drivers to submit requests to view or receive copies of their personal data,” the DPA noted in January 2024.

“In addition, they did not specify in their privacy terms and conditions how long Uber retains its drivers’ personal data or which specific security measures it takes when sending this information to entities in countries outside the [European Economic Area].”

This is not the first time U.S. companies have landed in the crosshairs of E.U. data protection authorities over the lack of equivalent privacy protections in the U.S. with regard to E.U. data transfers, raising concerns that European user data could be subject to U.S. surveillance programs.

Back in 2022, Austrian and French regulators ruled that the transatlantic movement of Google Analytics data was a breach of GDPR laws.

“Think of governments that can tap data on a large scale,” DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen said. “That is why businesses are usually obliged to take additional measures if they store personal data of Europeans outside the European Union.”