The rental bicycle provider OBike could have breached a security breach of data protection laws. The Berlin Data Protection Supervisor Maja Smoltczyk will refore initiate a test procedure against OBike, speaker shared. In coming weeks, company from Singapore will be given opportunity to take a detailed look at accusations. Smoltczyk Wool OBike to send a questionnaire.
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In December of last year, Bavarian Broadcasting had reported a security hole in OBike. For at least two weeks, names, contact information, profile photos and movement data of users from all over world should have been openly visible on internet. The research of Bavarian Radio showed that social media function of app enabled access to foreign user data.
OBike confirmed that re was a security issue with sharing feature in November 2017: In app, users can share distance travelled or number of calories consumed. The reason for vulnerability was, according to a company spokeswoman, move of servers from Shanghai to Europe. “Since vulnerability was only sharing function, a maximum of 100 users were affected in Germany,” said company. The problem was resolved within a week, and re was no more security risk.
In test procedure of Data Protection Supervisor Smoltczyk, OBike should now explain which customers were affected by leak and wher y were informed. “We are also interested in wher measures to close possible gap were sufficient in our view,” said Smoltczyks spokesman.
The company OBike, which was founded in January 2017, has its headquarters in Singapore and has been represented in Germany since August 2017. In meantime, group offers a total of around 8,000 rental bicycles in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover and Munich, which are not tied to a station and can be used and parked in city area.
