Uber's hacking crisis is deepening as regulators sharpen their knives and more questions emerge

Potential investor SoftBank was informed of the hack while conducting due diligence on a $10bn (£7.5bn) cash infusion before regulators and the public were told

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi is firefighting Uber’s biggest crisis to date (Reuters)

The revelation that Japanese tech investor SoftBank was told about Uber’s data hack before anyone affected by it got wind of it should come as no surprise.

Even a company as cavalier as Uber has proved it would think twice about trying to pull the wool over the eyes of a potential partner with $10bn (£7.5bn) in its back pocket.

The US legal system – like Britain’s – does not look kindly on companies that play fast and loose with big-money investors.

So SoftBank got access to information unearthed by an investigation that Uber says “at the time was preliminary and incomplete” three weeks before anyone else did, according to the Wall Street Journal.

How very pragmatic.

The surprising thing is that SoftBank ploughed ahead given what it knew. Although there have since been rumblings that the terms of its investment may be revisited, it is still apparently planning on putting its money up.

However, this is a story that is moving at considerable speed and there would still appear to be time for SoftBank to reconsider if the situation continues to deteriorate.

Regulatory authorities are sharpening their knives and the wounds they inflict are likely to be painful.

The Independent today reports on talks in Europe over the creation of an international task force of data protection authorities to investigate the company.

In one way Uber is fortunate that all this has emerged before a new, tougher, EU data protection standard comes into force next May, one which will give watchdogs the power to levy much higher fines and co-operate more closely.

Slim comfort but I’d imagine chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi will take anything he can get right now.

He was rising on an upward thermal prior to all this happening, having negotiated a peace deal between his predecessor, the company’s controversial founder Travis Kalanick, and Benchmark Capital, an early-stage investor.

It limited the former’s influence and brought an end to a potentially messy legal action.

Mr Kalanick is still hailed by some as an inspiration, as one of the great disruptive forces in the global economy, despite the numerous avoidable controversies he and the company have found themselves immersed in. This latest one may top the lot, and force a reassessment.

But it also raises questions about how Mr Khosrowshahi, the peacemaker, the man to purge the excesses of a wild and crazy start up and turn Uber into a grown-up and responsible business, has handled the affair.

Letting SoftBank know before anyone else might have been pragmatic but it could also be seen as the first blot on his copy book. For he is desperately trying to get control of what is rapidly turning into the greatest crisis of the company’s short life, the consequences of which are still hard to make an informed assessment of.

About the only cast iron thing you can say is: those who attacked London Mayor Sadiq Kahn for stripping the company of its licence to operate in the capital don’t look so clever now.