“Apple has a long history of trying to tightly control information about its products and culture,” Heather Kelly reports for CNN. “According to a new report, Apple recently sent a memo warning employees not to leak company information, saying 29 employees were caught last year, 12 of whom were arrested.”
“Naturally, the memo was leaked,” Kelly reports. “Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman got a copy of the sternly worded missive, which was posted to an internal Apple message board.”
“Apple didn’t specify who was arrested or what they were charged with. The memo said the leakers were Apple employees as well as contractors and supply chain partners,” Kelly reports. “Warren Braunig, a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters who specializes in trade secret law, thinks it’s unlikely the arrests were related to employees giving information to reporters. ‘The memo conflates ‘leaking’ — which is likely a violation of Apple’s corporate confidentiality agreement but not criminal — with serious criminal wrongdoing such as stealing trade secrets for a competitor, or hacking into Apple’s proprietary computer systems,’ said Braunig. ‘Apple is obviously trying to minimize leaks from employees. That’s a reasonable goal, but talking about the number of employees you’ve had arrested seems like an over-the-top scare tactic.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Drip, drip, drip…
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I do not see a problem with mentioning the fact that a thief can be thrown in jail. The leaking of production schedules, look & feel, pricing, availability, components or marketing can cost a company substantial profits, market leadership or damage their public image.
If someone who robs a Bank can get sent up the river, why not a thief who can do damage in far greater Dollar amounts?
Because when you step something you have possession. When you leak it you do not. Actually the opposite, so barring I’ll gotten gains,what was stolen?
ill gotten gains…
“but talking about the number of employees you’ve had arrested seems like an over-the-top scare tactic.”
Could not agree with you less. We are talking about high stakes things here. Samcopier is alway reading all they can about what is happening at Apple. Years may have gone into the development and could have gone up in smoke with just a few words. Get serious.
…So last week.
Did the memo read like….
“You have the right to remain silent….
Nay, you are ordered to remain silent!
Anything you say must first pass through the Speech Approval Process!”
It’s not like there’s much of excitement to leak from Apple nowadays. A leak about an updated Mac Pro or Mac mini — that’ll be a leak I look forward to.
Well, it’s been obvious to me that Apple has been doing a lot of controlled leaks to hype up the market, or adjust the inventory level, using outside resources and people, like Ming-Chi Kuo who gets most of the info from the supply chains, that are also getting the controlled leaks, or the order level adjustment etc. from Apple. Apple leaks what they want to leak.