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"Arthur T Knackerbracket" has found the following story:

Uber, like many companies that operate internationally, uses software to remotely disable its employees' laptops and smartphones.

As Uber has expanded -- opening offices in 78 countries worldwide -- sometimes local authorities have raided its offices. Police have wanted emails, documents and information on drivers and employees. It's happened in Paris, Hong Kong, Montreal and other countries.

In order to address these types of situations, the ride-hailing company uses software to protect its data, which is commonplace among companies that operate internationally. One type of software the company devised and reportedly used from Spring 2015 to late 2016 was called Ripley, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Ripley -- which was said to be named after Sigourney Weaver's character in the 1979 sci-fi movie "Alien" -- could remotely disable, lock or change the password on employees' computers and smartphones.

The idea was for Uber's team at its San Francisco headquarters to be able to shut down a device if necessary. The company used it at least two dozen times in situations with authorities in foreign countries, according to Bloomberg.

Uber said it no longer uses Ripley because it wasn't effective. It now uses an off-the-shelf software called Prey and another type of software it built called uLocker. Uber said this software is necessary to protect company data, along with the privacy of passengers, drivers and Uber employees.

[...] As for software like Ripley, Prey or uLocker, Uber said there's nothing secretive about it. It's basically the same software someone would use if they lost their smartphone.

"For instance, if an employee loses their laptop, we have the ability to remotely log them out of Uber's systems to prevent someone else from accessing private user data through that laptop," the Uber spokeswoman said.

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