Wisconsin is getting some funding to bolster consumer protection after a nationwide consumer protection lawsuit against ride-sharing company Uber was settled out of court.
That’s after a data breach in 2016 resulted in Uber losing the personal information of its drivers to hackers. Attorney General Brad Schimel says that while data breaches aren’t typically a problem, Uber didn’t take the correct steps to protect their drivers.
“Uber didn’t report it right away, and they do have a responsibility under consumer protection laws to report the breach promptly.”
That’s a problem because Uber attempted to fix the problem themselves according to Schimel. “The requirements are under the law are there so that authorities can look and try to make sure themselves, and then maybe track down those hackers and hold them accountable.”
Schimel says they’ll be offering up those funds to legal aid services to help people who are victims of identity theft to restore their credit and their name.
“To be able to help people who’ve had their identity compromised to be able to restore their good credit rating, to be able to restore their name.”