Uber boasts on its website that one of its safety features is driver anonymity, including changing phone numbers and other data to keep customer contact information safe and secure. However, the federal government recently issued penalties to Uber for not maintaining driver confidentiality. Why?

Uber Security Breach

Uber’s error hit the headlines in 2014, when it was found that their “God View” feature allowed drivers access to riders’ personal information. In this case, the feature showed a map of all Uber drivers and silhouettes of all the waiting Uber passengers – with their names attached.

Sound like an open invitation for stalking? The developers evidently thought so too. Their launch party in 2011 in Chicago reportedly exposed attendees to “Creepy Stalker View,” which followed 30 Uber customers in real time as they roamed New York City.

Cue 2014, when Uber workers suddenly started using this feature to track politicians, celebrities, and other high profile individuals. Uber issues a statement in November announcing that it had prohibited employees at every level from accessing driver data, according to FTC. However, FTC found that between August 2015 and May 2016, Uber did not, in fact, monitor at all levels. Rather, it only monitored for important internal users (like Uber executives).

Also, their driver data, which Uber proudly claimed was stored on Amazon Cloud, was found to have parts of it in readable, non-encrypted formats.

FTC Issues Penalties to Uber

Uber is no longer to misrepresent its security protocols to users, per the new FTC ruling. In addition, the company must undergo 20 years of external, third party auditing of their security measures. FTC has issued similar consequences to Facebook, Google and Twitter for mishandling of user data.

Uber’s response was that they have already addressed many of these issues, including hiring Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan in April.

“Our goal is to redefine what it means to be a world-class, people-centric protector of privacy,” the now-former CEO Travis Kalanick said of its decision to hire Sullivan. Kalanick recently left Uber, many say as a direct result of the recent scandals surrounding the company.