As our technology becomes more immersive, we’ll have an increased need for remote kill switches.

Kill switches, found on smartphones and connected devices, will soon come in handy for the enterprise and for government agencies. Uber developed its own software program called Ripley that could be activated by staff in San Francisco, should any of its overseas offices be raided by police.

It also deployed uLocker, a remote kill switch that could lock all company devices, including laptops and phones. On the consumer side, both Apple and Android now allow users to remotely wipe all the information on their phones and tablets using a web interface. The benefit would come with a cost, however.

Kill switches would mean that nobody could gain access to what was inside a lost or stolen phone—not even law enforcement.