> a tool whose sole purpose is to block lawful warrants There's no hint in the article that this was the sole purpose. From the article: > Employees aware of

> a tool whose sole purpose is to block lawful warrants There's no hint in the article that this was the sole purpose. From the article: > Employees aware of its existence eventually took to calling it Ripley So it was not codenamed from the start, there's an implication that a relatively small circle of users knew it. > Workers in Uber’s IT department were soon tasked with creating a system to keep internal records hidden from intruders Doesn't necessarily seem like something an ethical developer should refuse to do - it could easily be "sold" internally as security software protecting the sensitive information in case of network intrusion.