“Apple Store employees in Queensland, Australia, are reportedly in hot water after a photo-sharing and customer ‘rating’ ring was uncovered by their fellow employees,” Mike Wehner reports for The Daily Dot.
“Courier-Mail reports that four male employees have been fired from the Apple Store location when it was discovered that they had engaged in a female-rating game, and had been covertly snapping photos of female customers and even their own co-workers,” Wehner reports. “‘One person would take a photo and add it to the chat and others would give the person or their butt or their boobs a rating out of 10 and they would add their own side commentary,’ according to a statement given by one Apple Store staff member to Courier-Mail.”
Wehner reports, “It would appear the only piece of good news to come out of Apple’s investigation is that no photos were actually stolen from customers’ iPhones for use in the creepy photo-sharing game.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Apple confirmed an inquiry and said “several” jobs had been terminated,” BBC News reports. “But it said its inquiry had so far not shown that any photos had been stolen. No one had been photographed without consent, the inquiry had indicated.”
“The newspaper said the possible privacy breach came to light after a fellow employee noticed a store technician looking through a customer’s phone in the repair room,” The Beeb reports. “One staff member told the newspaper they were concerned the same thing was happening in other Australian Apple stores, including in Sydney.”
“The Australian Privacy Commissioner is also looking into the alleged privacy breach,” The Beeb reports. “‘We are aware of the reports and will be making enquiries with Apple to seek further information,’ said commissioner Timothy Pilgrim.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Not a good look for “pro-privacy” Apple.