![]() MacGann said every time he was personally involved in using the kill switch it was on the express orders of senior management in San Francisco. Data, insights and analysis delivered to you View all newsletters By The Tech Monitor team Sign up to our newsletters Sign up here The documents also seem to suggest that while sending profits through tax havens to cut its own tax bill, Uber “sought to deflect attention” by helping authorities collect taxes from its drivers. This process would be repeated over and again during raids throughout Europe, including the development of methods that allowed it to predict when a raid was likely to happen. It was already known the company had used its kill switch in Canada and Hong Kong, but the other revelations coming from the Uber leaks show it was considerably more widespread – and implemented on the express orders of senior executives. Shortly after this successful raid, Uber changed its processes and when another raid happened in France “access to IT tools was cut immediately, so the police won’t be able to get much if anything,” MacGann wrote to Uber’s head of policy and strategy, David Plouffe. Uber kill switch stopped when new CEO was appointed Former legal director for Uber in Europe, Zac de Kievit, reportedly told Kalanick “our team were detained and did not have an opportunity to raise the kill switch”. ![]() Eight armed offices arrived unannounced, accompanied by IT experts and ensured local staff couldn’t speak to San Francisco. Its attempted use in Belgium was the result of authorities trying to gain access to information on drivers. Regulators raided Uber’s French headquarters on November 19, but Uber was prepared due to a raid in Lyon earlier in the month and so a message was sent after the raid had begun to “kill access now”, with senior executives copied in. The first documented use in the leaked Uber files was in France in 2014, and came following months of anger from traditional taxi services in the country. Access must be shot down in AMS ”.Įxecutives had the switch developed while facing multiple raids from officials trying to gain evidence that could be used to shut down the service while it operated on the edges of regulations in place in any given country at that time. The kill switch order was apparently issued by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, telling staff “please hit the kill switch ASAP. As well as the revelation of regular use of a kill switch, the documents show heavy lobbying to have laws and regulations changed to suit Uber’s business practices, or even examples of flouting laws in some markets.Īccording to the documents, the kill switch was used to cut access to Uber servers in at least six countries, including during a police raid in Amsterdam. ![]() These documents cover the years 2013 to 2017, as Uber grew into a global transportation powerhouse, and were produced in more than 40 countries. It includes 124,000 confidential documents from the firm and appears to show Uber regularly flouted the law, duped police officers and lobbied governments around the world. The revelations – known as the Uber Files – appeared in documents originally leaked to the Guardian. Uber Files: ride-hailing firm’s behaviour in the spotlight Typically used in an emergency, even modern laptops have a remote kill switch option that can wipe data if a device is stolen. ![]() French Uber manager Thibaud Simphal responded: “We’ve used that playbook so many times by now the most difficult part is continuing to act surprised!” What is a kill switch?Ī kill switch isn’t a new idea: it is used to shut down or disable a device or software program to prevent theft or data loss. Messages released as part of the leak show Uber lobbyist Mark MacGann telling French IT staff to “appear confused” when they can’t access the data to distract from the kill switch being triggered during a raid. Documents about Uber’s rapid growth between 20 reveal repeated use of a data kill switch. Uber executives made liberal use of a so-called “kill switch” that cut access to the company’s servers in San Francisco and prevented government authorities around the world from accessing its files, leaked documents reveal. The secretive activities happened in the background while local Uber staff in countries such as France would appear to be working with investigators and tax authorities.
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