The Dutch data protection watchdog which announced the fine in a statement on Monday, said the transfers were a "serious violation" of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as they failed to appropriately protect driver information.
Uber faces a hefty penalty of €290 million ($324 million) for violating data protection regulations by transferring the personal information of European drivers to servers in the United States.
The Dutch data protection watchdog which announced the fine in a statement on Monday, said the transfers were a "serious violation" of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as they failed to appropriately protect driver information.
Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) chairman Aleid Wolfsen said in a statement, "Uber did not meet the requirements of the GDPR to ensure the level of protection to the data with regard to transfers to the US. That is very serious."
According to the Data Protection Authority (DPA), as reported by AFP, Uber gathered a wide range of sensitive personal data from European drivers, including taxi licenses, location data, photos, payment information, identity documents and in some instances, even criminal records and medical information.
This extensive data collection has raised significant concerns about privacy and data protection.
Over a two-year period, the DPA said the information was transferred to Uber's US headquarters without using transfer tools.
"Because of this, the protection of personal data was not sufficient," the DPA said.