Of course Uber allegedly had a tool to remotely destroy evidence Uber is once again standing accused of shady behavior, this time allegedly developing mechanisms to rapidly shield documents and other files from the eyes of police. A report by Bloomberg today claimed the dial-a-ride broker built a tool called Ripley to remotely lock and remove potentially incriminating data from machines in …
"the same xenomorph-ass-kicking Ripley from the Alien movie series"
Sounds more like The Talented Mr. Ripley to me.
Later, it was found that Uber had also used a custom piece of software dubbed Hell that sabotaged the rival Lyft service by sending its drivers fake pickup requests and tracking locations in order to poach customers.
And that's why, on the occasions I need a ride-sharing service, I use Lyft. I recently turned down an Uber paid for by someone else in favor of a self-paid Lyft. Friends don't let friends use Uber. Their motto should be "Have you filled your evil quota today?" Just completely toxic. Every time I use Lyft, I vote against Uber with my wallet, and I hope others will, too.
I was using Lyft for a while, but their app has failed me so many times now that I've grudgingly gone back to using Uber on occasion, at least until Lyft fixes their damn bugs. If there's more evidence of new misdeeds, I will give up Uber again, but for now, I'm granting them the benefit of the doubt on account of the fact that their app actually does what it's supposed to.
For those curious about the technical details, the Lyft app will regularly decide to truncate the first part of a given address such as the house number or whole street. In addition to rendering Lyft Line (the rideshare component) completely unusable, this has caused me to personally be delivered to unintended locations and to have Lyft try to route me to the center of the city instead of, say, the airport. Curiously, there is no ready mechanism in the Lyft app or on their Web site to file application bugs; even indicating that you've had an actual problem with the app is quite difficult.
"I was using Lyft for a while, but their app has failed me so many times now that I've grudgingly gone back to using Uber on occasion, at least until Lyft fixes their damn bugs."
Most towns and cities have many other options. Lyft and Uber are not a duopoly. I've used at least 4 local companies, all of which have app based booking.
"...an organised crime syndicate that is laundering money and using this taxi business thing as a front ?"
Surplus store success method.
1) Buy junk at Gov't auction
2) Take it to the local landfill
3) Write up a fake receipt
4) Run illicit cash thru register
Surplus? Or Laundry...
Law enforcement turn up:
"Unlock your machine!"
"I am trying but my password isn't working"
"Oh you're refusing to hand over your login crypto keys*? Off to jail with you until you comply!!"
"But honestly...that IS my password...."
*Because lets face it - passwords, PINs, keys....all one and the same in the eyes of most police forces et al.
Having a tool to remotely wipe company property isn't necessarily shady. If you're responsible for company equipment and data, you want some kind of system to wipe the CEO's phone when they leave it in a taxi after a hard night "entertaining clients", because you can assume that if there's a passcode they've probably written it down on the case.
That said, I'm just going to go ahead and assume Uber were using it for shady purposes, because at this point it would be bigger news if they weren't.
"Personally, I think that tool sounds great. If they could open source it, would make a lot of desktop and security ppl's jobs quite a bit easier..."
My agreement with your sentiment is cancelled out by my reaction to your use of 'ppl', hence no up-vote.
Coat: personally one hails taxis unless attending a social event in which case 'carriages at Midnight' is the rule.
There are still actual taxis and hire cars. Although sometimes feuds between cabmen get rough too. Apparently, prank calling your competitor for fake rides or silent calls is common. Conversely, I have called for a car, drawn breath before speaking, and they hung up on me.
As for Uber, do you think that perhaps an organised system of prostitution, drug dealing, and demanding money with menaces is operated from their address to disguise the fact that they're also responsible for the Uber car thing? After all, people -like- drug dealers.
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