Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Leaked Apple Memo Warns Employees About Leaking Info to Media
Apple recently posted a "lengthy" cautionary memo on its internal website that uses aggressive scare tactics to warn employees against leaking details about future products to the media, reports Bloomberg.
In 2017, Apple said it caught 29 leakers and that 12 of those people were arrested. "These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere," the company said in the memo.
Images of iPhone X components that leaked well ahead of the device's launch
The memo details several instances where sensitive data had been leaked to the media, such as the leaked iOS 11 GM, which divulged details on the iPhone X, and meetings where Craig Federighi detailed delays to planned functionality in iOS 12 to focus on improving existing features. The employees who leaked this info were caught and fired, said Apple.
It also warns Apple employees against befriending members of the press, analysts, and bloggers and "getting played."
Apple told employees that leaking information about an unreleased product can impact sales of current models, lead to fewer sales when the product is released, and give competitors more time to mimic product features. "We want the chance to tell our customers why the product is great, and not have that done poorly by someone else," Apple's Greg Joswiak said in the memo, the full text of which is below, courtesy of Bloomberg:
In 2017, Apple said it caught 29 leakers and that 12 of those people were arrested. "These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere," the company said in the memo.
The memo details several instances where sensitive data had been leaked to the media, such as the leaked iOS 11 GM, which divulged details on the iPhone X, and meetings where Craig Federighi detailed delays to planned functionality in iOS 12 to focus on improving existing features. The employees who leaked this info were caught and fired, said Apple.
It also warns Apple employees against befriending members of the press, analysts, and bloggers and "getting played."
Apple told employees that leaking information about an unreleased product can impact sales of current models, lead to fewer sales when the product is released, and give competitors more time to mimic product features. "We want the chance to tell our customers why the product is great, and not have that done poorly by someone else," Apple's Greg Joswiak said in the memo, the full text of which is below, courtesy of Bloomberg:
Last month, Apple caught and fired the employee responsible for leaking details from an internal, confidential meeting about Apple's software roadmap. Hundreds of software engineers were in attendance, and thousands more within the organization received details of its proceedings. One person betrayed their trust.Apple has always been an intensely private and secretive company, but as it has grown, leaks have become harder to contain, both among its own corporate employees and from its supplier partners. In 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple was going to "double down on secrecy on products," but each and every year, details on new products manage to leak out ahead of launch.
The employee who leaked the meeting to a reporter later told Apple investigators that he did it because he thought he wouldn't be discovered. But people who leak -- whether they're Apple employees, contractors or suppliers -- do get caught and they're getting caught faster than ever.
In many cases, leakers don't set out to leak. Instead, people who work for Apple are often targeted by press, analysts and bloggers who befriend them on professional and social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and begin to pry for information. While it may seem flattering to be approached, it's important to remember that you're getting played. The success of these outsiders is measured by obtaining Apple's secrets from you and making them public. A scoop about an unreleased Apple product can generate massive traffic for a publication and financially benefit the blogger or reporter who broke it. But the Apple employee who leaks has everything to lose.
The impact of a leak goes far beyond the people who work on a project.
Leaking Apple's work undermines everyone at Apple and the years they've invested in creating Apple products. "Thousands of people work tirelessly for months to deliver each major software release," says UIKit lead Josh Shaffer, whose team's work was part of the iOS 11 leak last fall. "Seeing it leak is devastating for all of us."
The impact of a leak goes beyond the people who work on a particular project -- it's felt throughout the company. Leaked information about a new product can negatively impact sales of the current model; give rival companies more time to begin on a competitive response; and lead to fewer sales of that new product when it arrives. "We want the chance to tell our customers why the product is great, and not have that done poorly by someone else," says Greg Joswiak of Product Marketing.
Investments by Apple have had an enormous impact on the company's ability to identify and catch leakers. Just before last September's special event, an employee leaked a link to the gold master of iOS 11 to the press, again believing he wouldn't be caught. The unreleased OS detailed soon-to-be-announced software and hardware including iPhone X. Within days, the leaker was identified through an internal investigation and fired. Global Security's digital forensics also helped catch several employees who were feeding confidential details about new products including iPhone X, iPad Pro and AirPods to a blogger at 9to5Mac.
Last year Apple caught 29 leakers.
Leakers in the supply chain are getting caught, too. Global Security has worked hand-in-hand with suppliers to prevent theft of Apple's intellectual property as well as to identify individuals who try to exceed their access. They've also partnered with suppliers to identify vulnerabilities -- both physical and technological -- and ensure their security levels meet or exceed Apple's expectations. These programs have nearly eliminated the theft of prototypes and products from factories, caught leakers and prevented many others from leaking in the first place.
Leakers do not simply lose their jobs at Apple. In some cases, they face jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and theft of trade secrets both classified as federal crimes. In 2017, Apple caught 29 leakers. 12 of those were arrested. Among those were Apple employees, contractors and some partners in Apple's supply chain. These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere. "The potential criminal consequences of leaking are real," says Tom Moyer of Global Security, "and that can become part of your personal and professional identity forever."
While they carry serious consequences, leaks are completely avoidable. They are the result of a decision by someone who may not have considered the impact of their actions. "Everyone comes to Apple to do the best work of their lives -- work that matters and contributes to what all 135,000 people in this company are doing together," says Joswiak. "The best way to honor those contributions is by not leaking."
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Top Rated Comments
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19 months ago
Joswiak is right. Why jeopardize your job/career that ultimately has a negative impact on the company and can result in the employee being terminated for being defiant and disloyal. That employee would likely never have a career in the tech sector ever again given their Malicious actions.
19 months ago
So someone leaked the memo about the leak? The snake is eating it's tail.
19 months ago
By the way, this means the report about iOS 12 last month is confirmed, right?
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/30/apple-to-focus-on-ios-performance-quality-issues-axios/
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/30/apple-to-focus-on-ios-performance-quality-issues-axios/
19 months ago
i mean, this is reasonable.
I wonder if they will send out an updated memo to update that number to 30.
I wonder if they will send out an updated memo to update that number to 30.
19 months ago
Telling the public why the products are great is much different from spinning why the products need to be thought of as great. The iPhone 4 leak may have taken the "wow factor" away from Steve Jobs' keynote debut, but I don't think it had any kind of harmful effect on perception or sales of one of the greatest devices ever to come out of Cupertino.
On the other hand, revealing Animoji as the prime feature of the iPhone X with iOS 11 gave enough of a head start for the public to realize it was a letdown and collectively ask "is that it?" even before the reveal.
I understand wanting to keep as far ahead of competitors as possible, but it seems like Apple is more concerned about suppressing negative perceptions rather than protecting the secrecy of genuinely revolutionary new products.
On the other hand, revealing Animoji as the prime feature of the iPhone X with iOS 11 gave enough of a head start for the public to realize it was a letdown and collectively ask "is that it?" even before the reveal.
I understand wanting to keep as far ahead of competitors as possible, but it seems like Apple is more concerned about suppressing negative perceptions rather than protecting the secrecy of genuinely revolutionary new products.
19 months ago
A common thing to do to catch leakers is to make messages like this unique by varying spacing, words, or punctuation so that the recipient can be identified. I wonder if Apple will be catching a leaker who leaked the warning about leaking.
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