Uber, Ola’s Fare Will Be ‘Fixed’ By Maha Govt.; Uber Secretly Settled Data Leak Of 57 Mn Users For $100,000!

Maharashtra Govt., despite creating a system of city taxi license for app-based cabs providers, is still not satisfied. In order to manipulate the business model, and to protect local kaali-peelis and auto-rickshaws, they will now ‘fix’ the tariff for Uber and Ola plying in the state.

In a related news, it has been discovered that Uber faced data leak of 57 million users and drivers, from all over the word. This happened in 2016, but the matter was intentionally hidden by Uber.

But the shocking news is that, Uber paid just $100,000 to convince the hackers to delete all data. 57 million user data for $100,000.. Is it even possible?

Or Uber is still hiding facts?

We explore..

Maharashtra Govt. Will Now ‘Fix’ Uber/Ola Fares!

Last year, after intense protests and strikes by kaali-peeli taxi owners, Maharashtra Govt. decided to draft regulations and rules for app-based taxi hailing services, mainly Uber and Ola.

Mandatory requirement of green fuel, appropriate security mechanism and even a minimum fare rule was imposed. So far so good.

But now, Govt. wants to fix the upper limit of fares as well, and this is actually a reality.

During the hearing of a case related with strict rules and regulations for getting city taxi permit in Mumbai, Additional government pleader G W Mattos, who is representing Govt of Maharashtra, said that based on ‘expert committee’ recommendations, the Govt. will soon fix both minimum and maximum fares for Uber and Ola.

This means that we can say good bye to quality service, because when every trip and every customer will pay the same, then what is the point of improvising the service?

The final call and actual fares would be decided during the Winter session of Maharashtra Legislature, which is held at Nagpur every year.

Interestingly, the petition was filed by some Uber and Ola drivers, complaining that the permit laws are so strict, that they need to pay 10X of what kaali-peeli taxis are required to pay for the same permit.

Uber Hid Data Leak of 57 Mn Users!

Meanwhile, in a stunning revelation, it has been found that 57 million users and drivers’ private data was leaked from Uber last year.

Reportedly, Uber paid $100,000 to the hackers to delete the data, and it seems that they actually did.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg: “None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it. We are changing the way we do business.”

Out of 57 million, 50 million data records were of customers, and rest 7 million belonged to drivers. Mainly their phone numbers and email ids were hacked, allegedly.

It seems that the hack was pretty basic: The hackers were able to crack the password of two Uber engineers, who had their accounts in Github. Due to this hack, Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan and another executive has been terminated.

We will keep you updated as we receive more inputs.