The Member of Parliament for Eastleigh, Mims Davies, has posed a question to the Digital Minister, Matt Hancock, following confirmation that a significant data breach of Uber driver and customer data had occurred, with the Government informed that some UK citizens’ data was affected.
Commenting, Mims said:
“This situation is extremely concerning. Uber is often only thought to operate in London in the UK, however, as my constituents will be aware, that is far from the case, and I wanted to ensure that the voice of all of those that use Uber South Coast was represented in the Commons Chamber last week.”
“I therefore asked the Minister what he was doing to hold to account companies that lose data and then seek to hide from their responsibilities.”
Responding, Minister for Digital Matt Hancock said:
“Not only will we, of course, use the full force of the existing law, but we are strengthening the law to give people more power and control over their data.”
At the time of answering questions on the data breach, the Minister confirmed that at that stage, the initial assessment was that the stolen information was not the sort that would allow direct financial crime, but that the Government were working urgently to verify that further.
The Government’s new Data Protection Bill, which is currently before the House of Lords, is expected to introduce a package of tougher measures to address data breaches. Those measures include a requirement on organisations to report breaches likely to impact on data subjects to the Information Commissioner within 72 hours of becoming aware of a data breach, and in serious cases, notifying those affected by the breach.
The Bill will also provide the Commissioner with increased powers to respond in the way that she considers appropriate, including with fines of up £18 million or 4% of global turnover.
Commenting further Mims said:
“I welcome the Ministers response, and owing to my time working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and feeding into the Digital Economy Bill through the Bill Committee stage, I recognise just how seriously MP’s, Ministers and the Government takes concerns such as this data breach, concerns that the new Data Protection Bill will aim to tackle when it is signed into law.”