01/12/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 29 November, the 'article 29' working group, which is made up of the personal data protection authorities of member states, announced that it had set up a task force to coordinate national investigations into the violation of personal data stored by the American electronic platform Uber. This decision follows revelations last week of hacking in October 2016, leading to the theft of information (names, email addresses and telephone numbers) of around 60 million users and drivers. The task force, which will be headed by the Dutch data protection authority, will include representatives of the French, German, Italian, Spanish and Belgian authorities. At a conference in Brussels on Thursday 30 November (see EUROPE 11905), Commissioner Vera Jourova described the behaviour of the company, which waited more than a year before revealing the hacking, as “irresponsible”. (MF)