“Apple may pride itself on offering its customers privacy and promising to protect their data, but in China, Apple’s own employees have been working against the company in a huge data theft scam,” Matthew Humphries reports for PC Magazine.
“According to the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), Chinese authorities have been investigating the data selling scam for months and 22 people have now been arrested across the Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces,” Humphries reports. “20 of those are Apple employees.”
“The scam involved using Apple’s own internal computer system and tools in order to collect the personal data of individual customers. This included names, phone numbers, Apple IDs, and every other bit of information Apple stores on its systems about individual owners/users of its devices and services,” Humphries reports. “One thing that remains unclear is whether the data stolen belonged to Chinese customers or includes records of users in other countries.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll wait to see what Apple reports regarding what was stolen and how they’re going to prevent such breaches in the future.
See. You can never really know, as many blindly and naively think that Apple totally protects your data. Even though it is not Apple directly, it is Apple directly (employees)
tron: no one, anywhere made the assertion that Apple’s security is bulletproof (“totally protects your data”). What is stated is Apple holds high the aim to keep customer’s data from public access, unless given permission, or required with an authorized subpoena. One has to be irrationally biased, or wanting to just be antagonistic, to believe that Apple’s security measures are anything but industry leading. Your posts of contrarian for contrarian’s sake are getting old.
Be kind to trondude. He can’t help but whine, as he has ABS (adult baby syndrome).
That’s Mr. Whine to you, flake.
Deal with it.
Agreed, no assertion that Apple security is bulletproof. But what kind of data DOES Apple have that can be subpoenaed, and by extension ‘stolen’?
Wrong. They were not employees of Apple. Read more carefully and look at the source of that statement.
I know this isn’t very PC but many Chinese are inherently corrupt and even dishonest by virtue of the culture – not living up to deals they have struck (this happened to a prominent industry friend of mine when they didn’t live up to a contract just because they didn’t feel like it). Doesn’t surprise me Apple has some untrustworthy Chinese employees with their hands in the data cookie jar.
Don’t bother rebutting this. It’s true. Yep, people are self-serving everywhere, but in some places more than others.
They weren’t employees of Apple and if you read the article carefully you will note that the Hong Kong based report and the police said no such thing. That assertion is entirely the making of the moron Humphries from PC Magazine. No other report (and I’ve read several of them) says or infers they were Apple employees.
One thing I dislike more than normal morons are media morons and this guy is one of them.
The reports are varied but it appears that contractors/suppliers make up the 20 of 22 arrested for the theft. The link below is the clearest article I’ve seen on the matter. As for “Apple employees”, to be fair, I suppose it depends on whether ‘contractors’ can be considered ’employees’. Seems similar to the Delta Airlines throwing off a passenger case earlier this year which turned out to be a ‘contractor’ airlines action but affected the ‘main’ company.
http://www.ibtimes.com/iphone-user-data-theft-22-apple-distributors-arrested-china-2549275
Whoops, meant “United Airlines” not Delta. 😛
“I suppose it depends on whether ‘contractors’ can be considered ’employees’.”
Sorry – silly sentence. There is no “it depends”. There is no law or regulation under which contractors are employees.
It’s not a point of law or regulation but perception. The question is in the public eye. Is the hiring company responsible for the actions of its ‘hires’.
Fact: None of the arrested were Apple employees. It’s not debatable. It’s not an alternative fact. Get it?
Keep in mind that many in the general public still don’t understand that in the United Airlines incident it was a contracted airlines that instigated. Do you really believe a contractor is not responsible for the actions of subcontractors? To the person receiving the service they are all one company, thus ’employees’.
Didn’t read the article, just reacted to MDN’s headline and that’s always a danger. My thoughts I think are still pretty accurate, Apple employee or not. Different set of cultural values.
Matthew Humphries of PC Magazine is a moron who wouldn’t know a fact if it took a dump in his mouth.
The 22 people arrested were not employees of Apple and never were. They were distributors serving the same kind of function asa branded reseller. The access they had was from their customers not an open book on all iPhone purchasers. And it was no more access than is necessary to set up a new customer.
Buckle up when Apple wants to have more “diversity”. This means more dishonest & “corrupt by culture” employees
Wasn’t aware that The Clot was working for Apple now.
China: Criminal Nation. SOS: Same Old Shite.