Apple Employees: Did You Jailbreak

[BrianStoiber]

Please only answer this if you are an Apple employee.

Have you jailbroken you iPhone? Yes or No.

I would love to see what percentage of Apple employees actually jailbroke their iphones. I am guessing the number is rather large but that is just a guess. Anyone know how to set up a poll on here?

[Tallest Skil]

Can't imagine you'll get many results, since it's in their contract that they're not allowed to post here.

[SnowLeopard2008]

I'm not an employee, but there is already another thread with the same title.

[BrianStoiber]

Can't imagine you'll get many results, since it's in their contract that they're not allowed to post here.

Are you kidding me? I would love to see this contract that they are not allowed to post here.

On a slightly related subject, my uncle is a Circuit Court Judge and I have been told multiple times by him that is is IMPOSSIBLE to sign away your rights. One of those rights is the First Amendment. Now, I understand that you would not be allowed to post inside info that you have based on NDA's, but even if you did and you didn't bow to legal department, you would win in court if you had a halfway decent lawyer. The problem is most people would just do whatever they were told. You would however lose credibility and people wouldn't trust you and/or put you in a position where you would want to quit or never have the ability to leak something again.

For example: I worked at a athletic facility where participants were required to sign a waiver saying if they got hurt, the company was no responsible. Well a kid tripped while running and broke his ankle. His father was a lawyer and told the company that they were going to pay for all the medical bills. As an employee and hearing this, I thought the father was out of his mind. But the company called their lawyer and he told them to pay for all the medical bills stating that "you cannot sign away your rights so the company is still responsible." So hearing that from a a Circuit Court Judge, corporate lawyer and seeing a lawyer threaten over it. I tend to believe them. unfortunately, people don't understand their rights and the law well enough sometimes.

[fireshot91]

They are allowed to post here. They just can't post on rumors.

[SFStateStudent]

I tried to give -2 STARS, but I couldn't do it! I even tried the "SEARCH" feature and I still can't give -STARS...:mad:

[NightGeometry]

I'm not American so I am probably mistaken, but I thought your first amendment only covered the government taking away your right to free speech. Is that wrong?

[yoyo5280]

sure they can post here.

Just if Steve finds out...Ill just show you the interview.
So I actually wanted to know -- on the topic of journalism and outreach. Obviously you are pretty tight lipped about forthcoming products. What do you do when learning of a leak in the good ship Apple?

Basically, our ex-Mossad security team swings into action. I ran a photo recently of a leaker, and what we did to him. [Pulls out photo]
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8859/fakesteveleakzk0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/fakesteveleakzk0.jpg/1/w400.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img116/fakesteveleakzk0.jpg/1/)
From interview with fake steve jobs.

[izibo]

I'm not American so I am probably mistaken, but I thought your first amendment only covered the government taking away your right to free speech. Is that wrong?

No, you are not wrong at all. In fact, you have a better understanding of our constitution than most Americans.

Apple is well within their legal right to prohibit employees from doing whatever they want as a condition of employment (provided Apple is not forcing an employee to violate local, state, or federal law in the process).

For instance, many pro-athletes have clauses in their contracts that does not allow them to go play a pick-up game of basketball or go snowboarding.

[MikePA]

I'm not American so I am probably mistaken, but I thought your first amendment only covered the government taking away your right to free speech. Is that wrong?

You are correct, it's the other poster who doesn't understand. Apple's policy is a condition of employment. If employees don't like it, they are free to leave Apple.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

[BrianStoiber]

You are correct, it's the other poster who doesn't understand. Apple's policy is a condition of employment. If employees don't like it, they are free to leave Apple.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

But you forget one thing, and I am right. The First Amendment says the government cannot create a law abridging the freedom of speech, but the Supreme Court and many hundreds of lower courts all the way down to municipal/county courts have ruled that as long as you are not breaking a law, you have the freedom to speak where you want (for example: MR) and what you want. All the First is saying is they (the US gov.) can't take it away from you. This is very similar to the controversy where schools believe they have the authority to demand students not use MySpace or Facebook. Again, courts have overwhelmingly said that as long as they are not breaking any laws doing so, it is out of the schools jurisdiction. So once an Apple employee walks off their campus or out of their store, they can say what they want.

[MikePA]

So once an Apple employee walks off their campus or out of their store, they can say what they want.

Sigh, I am not forgetting anything and you are wrong. Yes, they may say (not can say) whatever they want and if it violates their Apple employment contract, they will be fired.

[question fear]

But you forget one thing, and I am right. The First Amendment says the government cannot create a law abridging the freedom of speech, but the Supreme Court and many hundreds of lower courts all the way down to municipal/county courts have ruled that as long as you are not breaking a law, you have the freedom to speak where you want (for example: MR) and what you want. All the First is saying is they (the US gov.) can't take it away from you. This is very similar to the controversy where schools believe they have the authority to demand students not use MySpace or Facebook. Again, courts have overwhelmingly said that as long as they are not breaking any laws doing so, it is out of the schools jurisdiction. So once an Apple employee walks off their campus or out of their store, they can say what they want.

You are technically correct that the gov't can't take it away from you, but you're forgetting that companies have the right to protect their name and brand. If you are an apple employee posting about your favorite car brand, or why you love bacon, etc, then Apple doesn't care. If you are posting as an Apple employee then Apple has every right to fire you. You're representing yourself as an officially sanctioned Apple employee and thus seen as speaking as Apple. If you were posting on a knitting website and mentioned you worked at Apple, I don't know that Apple would enforce the employee handbook. But at Macrumors, where the discussion is Apple computer focused, then your being an Apple employee carries a certain weight.

And if you are a retail employee, your employer ABSOLUTELY has the right to ask you to sign and accept an employee code of conduct. Being an employee means representing the company. Many companies (tech and otherwise) have employee conduct policies that prohibit blogging about being employed by said company. And every single one of them have incredibly well paid legal departments who all make sure those employee codes of conducts are legal and binding.

So while it is true you can't sign away your rights, there are specific occasions and situations where you can't just go around shooting your mouth off either.

[Surely]

Anyway...... back in February, when I got my iPhone (has it been that long?:eek:), the Apple sales guy that helped me at the Grove Store in Los Angeles had a jail-broken 4GB.

So there's at least one guy.

Just sayin'......

[cjm3113]

I have a friend who works at an Apple store. He said that they are allowed to post here. He never heard anything about not being able to and did not sign any contract saying he could not.

They are not allowed to speak about certain things (including product rumors) ANYWHERE, but it has nothing to do with this forum specifically.

[CocoaPuffs]

Apple retail employees are less informed than MacRumors readers, that's fact.

[spooky2k]

Apple employees are not allowed to post here.
But some do.

My iPhone is jailbroken and unlocked. I had to be very very careful when using it in-store to demo apps etc. Had to get an app to change the carrier name to the exclusive carrier here (O2) instead of Orange, and hide all my other icons (again, using an app).

This was before app store or 3G iPhone.

Many of my colleagues used jailbroken and unlocked iPhones.

p.s: I left Apple a while ago due to policies like these. The posters above are right: they ask you to not post here (amongst many many other things) in the employment contract. I disagreed, so I left.

[jeffmc]

Are you kidding me? I would love to see this contract that they are not allowed to post here.

On a slightly related subject, my uncle is a Circuit Court Judge and I have been told multiple times by him that is is IMPOSSIBLE to sign away your rights. One of those rights is the First Amendment. Now, I understand that you would not be allowed to post inside info that you have based on NDA's, but even if you did and you didn't bow to legal department, you would win in court if you had a halfway decent lawyer. The problem is most people would just do whatever they were told. You would however lose credibility and people wouldn't trust you and/or put you in a position where you would want to quit or never have the ability to leak something again.

For example: I worked at a athletic facility where participants were required to sign a waiver saying if they got hurt, the company was no responsible. Well a kid tripped while running and broke his ankle. His father was a lawyer and told the company that they were going to pay for all the medical bills. As an employee and hearing this, I thought the father was out of his mind. But the company called their lawyer and he told them to pay for all the medical bills stating that "you cannot sign away your rights so the company is still responsible." So hearing that from a a Circuit Court Judge, corporate lawyer and seeing a lawyer threaten over it. I tend to believe them. unfortunately, people don't understand their rights and the law well enough sometimes.

no your analogy is terrible

i used to be a genius, many employees get fired over things as small as posting their opinion or helping someone on a forum like this

[trule]

Are you kidding me? I would love to see this contract that they are not allowed to post here.


Its typically in the form of an NDA. You would have to sign one of these for pretty much any white collar job as a condition of employment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclosure_agreement

[PowerFullMac]

I went to a Apple Store and showed the employees my jailbroken iPod touch (this was before the App Store came into existence) and they thought it was cool! :D

[Nick.]

Anyway...... back in February, when I got my iPhone (has it been that long?:eek:), the Apple sales guy that helped me at the Grove Store in Los Angeles had a jail-broken 4GB.

So there's at least one guy.

Just sayin'......

Oh wow I went there when I was on holiday (which I won with the UK's iPhone carrier, O2) in Los Angeles! I got to meet the Simpsons crew and stayed in Hollywood Roosevelt, it really was amazing. You're so lucky to live there!

[geekmommy4]

When I went to our Apple store, several employees had jailbroken phones and weren't bashful about showing them off. Must have an easy-going manager!

[Brendan.Porter]

I can tell you from experience as an Ex-Employee, many of the Apple Store folks watch Macrumors like a hawk, and many of them post under closely guarded aliases (and always from outside the company LAN).

Unfortunately, they are no closer to Cupertino's secrets than anyone else.

[SFStateStudent]

p.s: I left Apple a while ago due to policies like these. The posters above are right: they ask you to not post here (amongst many many other things) in the employment contract. I disagreed, so I left.

Good for you Spooky! I've got several friends that work for Apple at the many Bay Area Apple Stores and they are just like you when it comes to the rules in their employment contract; they totally disagree with many of the stringent and ticky-tack rules they must abide by on a daily basis...:(

[Surely]

Oh wow I went there when I was on holiday (which I won with the UK's iPhone carrier, O2) in Los Angeles! I got to meet the Simpsons crew and stayed in Hollywood Roosevelt, it really was amazing. You're so lucky to live there!

Yeah, it's a great town. I've been living here for almost a year now.

Coincidentally, I was back at the Grove Apple Store this weekend..... followed by dessert at the Cheesecake Factory.

[dreamer408]

I'm not American so I am probably mistaken, but I thought your first amendment only covered the government taking away your right to free speech. Is that wrong?

nope..i believe your right my friend...:cool:

[spooky2k]

Good for you Spooky! I've got several friends that work for Apple at the many Bay Area Apple Stores and they are just like you when it comes to the rules in their employment contract; they totally disagree with many of the stringent and ticky-tack rules they must abide by on a daily basis...:(

Cheers....many people thought i was crazy for leaving, but I refused to work for a company with terms and conditions (small-print) that Apple had. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun job but there were times where the customer was clearly in the right but the process was set up so Apple could turn them away at every turn. No doubt this was as frustrating for the customer as it was for me. For me it came down to a question of ethics: should I be selling this product to a customer if I don't feel it has the support/quality the advertisements talk about? My answer was no, so I left.

I should note that it was my experience, not the status quo.