SAN FRANCISCO—Uber has designed a new debit card with its drivers in mind, with the new plastic tailgating an earlier announcement it is also introducing a general credit card.
The new Uber Visa Debit Card from GoBank is geared toward drivers and offers cash back rewards for gas fill-ups and car maintenance as well as other expenses associated with ride-hailing apps, Mashable reported.
The card offers 3% cash back at Exxon and Mobil gas stations, and 1.5% at other gas stations.
“Discounts at Jiffy Lube and Advance Auto Parts also make sense for a driver putting a lot of wear and tear on their vehicle. Other perks include cash back for Walmart purchases and at Sprint for monthly phone and data bills,” Mashable said.
As CUToday.info reported here, Uber has already announced plans to launch its own credit card, partnering with the British bank Barclays.
Separately, Uber has agreed to stricter monitoring by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission following its concealment of a 2016 data breach while it was negotiating with the agency for a settlement tied to a separate, yet similar, breach two years prior.
The FTC said the ride-sharing company had agreed to a revised settlement that, if violated, means Uber could be subject to civil penalties, Bank Info Security reported.
"The strengthened provisions of the expanded settlement are designed to ensure that Uber does not engage in similar misconduct in the future," said Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen.
Uber reached a proposed settlement with the FTC last August, just two months before it reluctantly revealed another data breach.
The August settlement covered a 2014 breach. In that incident, an attacker obtained a file of data containing 100,000 unencrypted names and driver's license numbers for Uber drivers. It also contained 215 unencrypted names, bank account and domestic routing numbers and 84 other names and Social Security numbers, Bank Info Security noted.
The breach occurred because Uber had left an access key on the code-sharing website GitHub for an Amazon S3 bucket.
The FTC subsequently accused Uber of failing to reasonably secure personal data as well as monitor access to consumer data by its own employees. As part of the original settlement, Uber agreed to implement a comprehensive privacy program and independent audits, Bank Info Security reported.
“As those negotiations were underway, Uber already knew it had been breached again but failed to promptly inform the FTC as required,” Bank Info Security said.