Uber reaches $148 million settlement over its 2016 data breach, which affected 57 million globally

Uber has agreed to pay $148 million to settle allegations from 50 states and the District of Columbia that the ride-hailing company violated data breach laws when it waited a year to disclose a hack affecting tens of millions of its riders and drivers. The settlement is among the biggest in Uber’s history and comes as policymakers on Sept 26 were debating whether to write a national consumer privacy law in front of witnesses including Google and Twitter. It marks the first time Uber has settled a matter with the top law enforcement officials from all 50 states and the District. Uber not only waited a year to disclose the breach — which exposed names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million people around the world — but also paid $100,000 to the hackers to keep the incident quiet.