Apple Accuses Former Employee of Stealing Trade Secrets and Leaking Them to Media

[burgman]

"In exchange for the leaked information, Lancaster asked the media person he was in contact with for favors, such as providing favorable coverage of a startup company that Lancaster invested in."
Hopefully, once Apple is done with him the Feds will charge both of them with fraud. Can't wait for names to be published.

 

[Steve121178]

ahhh...so its ok for apple to circumvent their own encryption to investigate an employee. but not for law enforcement....got it.

All his data, which doesn't belong to him, would be sitting on corporate Apple mail/messaging servers which Apple manage.

It's more than ok for Apple to do what they did, especially when the law has been broken, IP stolen etc. Apple are also obliged to protect their IP at all costs.

 

[billk711]

So.....whose the journalist?

Dan

 

[JuBe]

We've uploaded the full document, and it's a fascinating read that covers leak culture within Apple and the lengths the company will go to in order to put a stop to it.

I really wish you all would use a platform like DocumentCloud instead; it doesn't require having an account to download the document.

 

[stevet]

I can't wait to see Jon Prosser on the stand, lol.

I wouldn't doubt Apple has been watching this dude for a long time. Large tech/media corporations, especially one like Apple, have some unbelievable reach. There's no doubt in my mind they've just followed him this entire time to pull in evidence, then smack him with a nicely structured lawsuit.

This is why you don't F$&@ with NDAs.

I highly doubt they were inviting him to high level meetings knowing he was leaking info from those meetings.

 

[Shark5150]

I can't wait to see Jon Prosser on the stand, lol.


I highly doubt they were inviting him to high level meetings knowing he was leaking info from those meetings.

Definitely not Prosser

Apple Sues Former Employee for Leaking Trade Secrets to Unnamed ‘Media Correspondent’ (PDF)

Link to: https://daringfireball.net/misc/2021/03/Apple-v-Lancaster.pdf

daringfireball.net

 

[InnocenceMyth]

Totally agree. Look at all the "righteous" comments from people on the macRUMOURS site. Hilarious!
Regardless of what is and isn't right, you ALL come here to find out more than is publicly known yet so you are all guilty. Without audience there would be no leaks. Simple as that.

So Ricebucket is on point here.

Slow your roll, Freida. The majority of the articles on this site are not rumors, and there are other aspects to the site, such as the forums. The guy violated an NDA just to make himself feel important. He’s gonna pay big money.

 

[Freida]

I'm not saying he is not. He got caught and the punishment is coming. Not denying that.
I was just point (or agreeing actually) that I don't think its fair for people to be righteous when they come here for these precise leaks and info to find out "whats next".
If this was another forum it would be different thing but this page lives on these.

If there were no leaks maybe there would be no Macrumors at all.

Slow your roll, Freida. The majority of the articles on this site are not rumors, and there are other aspects to the site, such as the forums. The guy violated an NDA just to make himself feel important. He’s gonna pay big money.

 

[TwoBytes]

So this means less news on macrumors!

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

Totally agree. Look at all the "righteous" comments from people on the macRUMOURS site. Hilarious!
Regardless of what is and isn't right, you ALL come here to find out more than is publicly known yet so you are all guilty. Without audience there would be no leaks. Simple as that.

So Ricebucket is on point here.

And yet here you are...

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

"In exchange for the leaked information, Lancaster asked the media person he was in contact with for favors, such as providing favorable coverage of a startup company that Lancaster invested in."
Hopefully, once Apple is done with him the Feds will charge both of them with fraud. Can't wait for names to be published.

Pigs will fly before an American journalist is held liable for disseminating Apple product rumors.

 

[Freida]

Your point?

And yet here you are...

 

[Wildkraut]

I'm wondering what these trade secrets were. Trade secrets, not source code or other documents.

Specs of Apples upcoming Magic Self Cleaning and Double Sided Smart Unisex Stretching Underwear

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

Your point?

Let he who has not sinned throw the first stone. If it's immoral to be here, then what does that make you?

 

[Freida]

Never said that. It seems that you misunderstood the point entirely. Please re-read the history to know what I was referring to before going biblical on me :-D

Let he who has not sinned throw the first stone. If it's immoral to be here, then what does that make you?

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

Never said that. It seems that you misunderstood the point entirely. Please re-read the history to know what I was referring to before going biblical on me :-D

I read it and I comprehended it the first time. It was a bad take.

 

[Freida]

If you say so

I read it and I comprehended it the first time. It was a bad take.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Is Jon Prosser about to receive a subpoena?

Well, his first “big” leak was the Apple store closures due to COVID-19. I’m not sure, but I’m gonna go ahead and guess that he didn’t get that super secret information from this guy, who left the company in October 2019.
His second big leak was announcing that new iPads and MacBooks would be coming in a certain week in March. Again, I’m going to go ahead and guess that he didn’t get that information from this guy.
His third big leak was the iPhone SE2 release date. Again, not overly super secret information that’s going to be highly protected under lock and key. That was probably known by the marketing team, not this guy.
The way that this is worded, it sounds like this guy was giving information about super, super secret products. Apple car and AR glasses type products, not iPhone, iPad, and MacBook spec bump release dates, which is the kind of stuff that John focuses on.

 

[cmaier]

Do you say the same when Apple steals from other companies?

When did that happen? They’ve never been convicted of any such crime.

 

[cmaier]

I am pretty sure this is a civil matter not criminal so no jail time.

Civil suit, but seems like if the allegations are true a crime or two may have been committed. Not that he would necessarily be prosecuted.

 

[germinator]

I don't need to. When I started in the Intel community, I signed NDAs that acknowledge that I could face a death penalty should I ever violate my trust. Edward AGREED to his conditions yet violated his trust.

He is nothing more than worthless .

Your opinion. In the opinion of many, myself included, he's a hero.
Nazi concentration camps guards would also have to sign an NDA today.

 

[germinator]

First, given that the mac rumors community is not that big, we should already have found out who the beneficiary of the leaks was--but not yet. I am confident this will leak as well...

Second, the leaks are not going to stop. No matter the outcome of this case. It's human nature. Personally, as an Apple customer, I am glad that we know in advance about Apple's plans.

And yes, the sanctimonious, self-righteous comments here are just hilarious.

There are a couple of things that are unusual about this case:
1. He was paid for his leaks. I am not exactly an expert in tech rumors, but I highly doubt that, say, macrumors pays for confidential information on Apple

2. Apple is seeking a jury trial. They must have a really good case, otherwise popular opinion usually sides with the individual against a large corporation.

 

[Mistborn15]

Until November 1, 2019, Lancaster was employed

Interesting.. Jon Prosser started being less accurate around this time

 

[HackMacDaddy]

I actually hate leaks and spoilers. Takes away so much of the magic when seeing the products for the first time. Same goes for movies, that‘s why I never watch trailers.

 

[Rob_2811]

Interesting.. Jon Prosser started being less accurate around this time

I'm fairly sure that he gets most of his information from retail employees and pieces the rest together from leaks from the supply chain, which is why his record is so spotty.