Bolt ordered to pay GHC1.9m in damages for failing to detect rider’s identity theft

Bolt Holdings OU, the data processor for ride hailing platform Bolt has been ordered by the Adentan Circuit Court to pay a Lecturer and Chief Executive Officer of a software solutions company, Justice Noah Adade an amount of GHS 1.9million.

This was after the court had found that the company had failed to detect the stealing of the Lecturer’s identity and its subsequent use by a driver.

Background

Mr. Adade in August 2022 ordered a Bolt ride on his phone and found himself, that is his photograph and details as being the driver to pick him up. When the ride arrived, it was his own employee, one Peter Walker who was driving the vehicle. Mr. Walker admitted to stealing the Lecturer’s identity and successfully registering himself as a driver on the Bolt App.

Suit

The lecturer then took the matter to the court asking the court to find that Bolt had been negligent by failing to verify the identity of the driver hence allowing the identity theft to take place. The court presided over by Her Honour Sedinam Awo Kwadam found that Bolt was required by Ghana’s data protection Act to undertake a liveliness identity verification check when registering a prospective driver.  It therefore ruled that the failure to undertake this check amounted to a breach of its duty of care owed to the data subject (Mr. Adade).

The court noted that this also amounted to non-compliance with Sections 20 of the Data Protection Act which bars data processors from processing personal data without the prior consent of the data subject unless the purpose for which the personal data is processed is necessary for the purpose of a contract to which the data subject is a party.

This failure, the court stated, subjected Mr Adade to emotional distress and Trauma for seeing himself as a Bolt Driver operating over an uncertain period of time. This, it noted, also amounted to a damage to his reputation, forcing him to expend resources to seek legal redress. The court dismissed claims by Bolt that it was diligent and took reasonable care.

Her Honour Sedinam Awo Kwadam said there was no evidence to show that the lecturer contributed to his identity theft or cooperated with the thief with the aim of milking Bolt.

“All organizations, big or small who have the privilege of processing the personal data of people must live up to the high standard of care expected of them by statute and general public safety policy in order to prevent unscrupulous people from using their platforms and systems to place ordinary citizens of Ghana at the risk of their identities being used for purposes they never consented to”  the Judge stated.

Orders

The court therefore ordered Bolt to pay GHC1.9 million as compensation and GHC20,000 to the lecturer as cost of his legal fees. The Data Protection Commission is to ensure a forensic audit of Bolt’s systems and data base to check the accuracy of the identity of all its drivers up until March 2024. The Commission is to also ensure all other ride-hailing platforms in Ghana undergo this exercise.

Source: Onuaonline.com