Comment by ronsor

11 hours ago

These days many tech company offices have a "panic button" for raids that will erase data. Uber is perhaps the most notorious example.

21 comments

ronsor

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caminante  10 hours ago

>notorious

What happened to due process? Every major firm should have a "dawn raid" policy to comply while preserving rights.

Specific to the Uber case(s), if it were illegal, then why didn't Uber get criminal charges or fines?

At best there's an argument that it was "obstructing justice," but logging people off, encrypting, and deleting local copies isn't necessarily illegal.

  • pyrale  7 hours ago

    > if it were illegal, then why didn't Uber get criminal charges or fines?

    They had a sweet deal with Macron. Prosecution became hard to continue once he got involved.

    • caminante  6 hours ago

      Maybe.

      Or they had a weak case. Prosecutors even drop winnable cases because they don't want to lose.

BrandoElFollito  9 hours ago

This is a perfect way for the legal head of the company in-country to visit some jails.

They will explain that it was done remotely and whatnot but then the company will be closed in the country. Whether this matters for the mothership is another story.

  • chrisjj  5 hours ago

    > but then the company will be closed in the country. Whether this matters for the mothership is another story.

    Elon would love it. So it won't happen.

  • amelius  7 hours ago

    Of course they will not lock the data but hide it, and put some redacted or otherwise innocent files in their place.

    • acdha  7 hours ago

      That sounds awfully difficult to do perfectly without personally signing up for extra jail time for premeditated violation of local laws. Like in that scenario, any reference to the unsanitized file or a single employee breaking omertà is proof that your executives and IT staff conspired to violate the law in a way which is likely to ensure they want to prosecute as maximally as possible. Law enforcement around the world hates the idea that you don’t respect their authority, and when it slots into existing geopolitics you’d be a very tempting scapegoat.

      Elon probably isn’t paying them enough to be the lightning rod for the current cross-Atlantic tension.

      2 replies →

    • BrandoElFollito  7 hours ago

      Nobody does that. It is either cooperation with law enforcement or remote lock (and then there are consequences for the in-country legal entity, probably not personally for the head but certainly for its existence).

      This was a common action during the Russian invasion of Ukraine for companies that supported Ukraine and closed their operations in Russia.

digiown  5 hours ago

Or they just connect to a mothership with keys on the machine. The authorities can have the keys, but alas, they're useless now, because there is some employee watching the surveillance cameras in the US, and he pressed a red button revoking all of them. What part of this is illegal?

Obviously, the government can just threaten to fine you any amount, close operations or whatever, but your company can just decide to stop operating there, like Google after Russia imposed an absurd fine.

  • anigbrowl  5 hours ago

    You know police are not all technically clueless, I hope. The French have plenty of experience dealing with terrorism, cybercrime, and other modern problems as well as the more historical experience of being conquered and occupied, I don't think it's beyond them to game out scenarios like this and preempt such measures.

    As France discovered the hard way in WW2, you can put all sorts of rock-solid security around the front door only to be surprised when your opponent comes in by window.