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Like what? Seriously, this sounds EXACTLY like the garbage that happens when large companies with big legal departments get wind of anyone saying or doing anything that they didn't officially sanction first, while identifying themselves as working for the place.

What she did was simply providing good, solid advice on handling security for a stolen i-Device. If she'd just left out that one comment about working for a company that likes to talk about fruit, they probably wouldn't even have a leg to stand on to threaten her over this.

Unfortunately, she's right. The "old Apple" would have reviewed such a thing in context and decided it was accurate information and helpful information, and did the company no harm. The "new Apple" is no longer the dream of a couple of computer geeks (Jobs and Woz), and is a fully established corporate giant.

IMO, this is really no different than things like Paramount going after Star Trek fans for making fan-fiction based on the original TV series and movies. It's clearly only helping boost popularity of their intellectual property and does no harm to the original works. Yet their legal team can't stand the fact, "Someone referenced it without our written permission!"
And you, on the other hand, have exactly the kind of histrionic reaction typical of forums. You've got half the story and you're furious. Not only that but you're making comparisons to something that's completely unrelated simply because the Start Trek thing also annoyed you. In which sense I guess it is "really no different" because both give you a springboard to get angry. Oh well. Welcome to the internet.
 
Apple has a brand to protect. If they wanted to ensure that technical tips were provided, then they’d want them correct and presented in a consistent manner. Imagine hundreds of Apple employees on TikTok providing tech tips, and some of them are wrong or presented in confusing ways…. It doesn’t represent the Apple brand very well. She didn’t need to allude to being an Apple employee at all to provide the tips to the viewers, but she did so to give herself more authority…. Using Apple’s brand in a way they don’t need to appreciate.

P.S. It’s immature and silly to say she didn’t identify herself as working for Apple… the hint was obvious.
 
I sympathize but if she just complied with the request and took it down this would be over, but instead she is pushing back, going public and now is really at risk for being let go as I'm sure all of this runs rough shod over all kinds of rules Apple likely made her sign when she started the job. All for Tik Tok fame. Ugh.
 
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Apple has a brand to protect. If they wanted to ensure that technical tips were provided, then they’d want them correct and presented in a consistent manner. Imagine hundreds of Apple employees on TikTok providing tech tips, and some of them are wrong or presented in confusing ways…. It doesn’t represent the Apple brand very well. She didn’t need to allude to being an Apple employee at all to provide the tips to the viewers, but she did so to give herself more authority…. Using Apple’s brand in a way they don’t need to appreciate.

P.S. It’s immature and silly to say she didn’t identify herself as working for Apple… the hint was obvious.

exactly. I work for a major corporation that is well known nationally and we are expressly forbidden for discussing anything regarding the company in public and certainly not providing online support because they want that to be a unified and consistent PR and customer service front (and they have a huge department of each.) I absolutely would expect to get in trouble and if repeated, fired, if I "represented" my company online to provide support which is not in my job description or specific training.
 
Entitlement society. She wanted attention on TikTok and got it, now she will lose a six figure job at apple because she needed to be the shiniest snowflake.
 
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I am a former Apple employee, worked as a "Lead Genius" for a number of years. Apple had a very clear policy concerning what you could and could not do outside of work in relation to Apple. You were warned not to post to anything on the internet identifying yourself as an Apple employee as well doing work related to your work at Apple outside of Apple. I once got into some hot water as a neighbor of mine came into one of the stores and brag about me helping her (which was basically answering some Mac related questions) and I was called in by management who thought I was doing support work outside of Apple. So basically, to be on the safe side, employees pretty much did not post things Apple related on the web when you were an employee. They are HIGHLY protective of their brand and their feeling was, if you post something and identify yourself as an employee, you are representing the brand and you are not allowed to do that. I seriously doubt that policy has changed. Apple had certain rules you were best not to cross.
 
I am a former Apple employee, worked as a "Lead Genius" for a number of years. Apple had a very clear policy concerning what you could and could not do outside of work in relation to Apple. You were warned not to post to anything on the internet identifying yourself as an Apple employee as well doing work related to your work at Apple outside of Apple. I once got into some hot water as a neighbor of mine came into one of the stores and brag about me helping her (which was basically answering some Mac related questions) and I was called in by management who thought I was doing support work outside of Apple. So basically, to be on the safe side, employees pretty much did not post things Apple related on the web when you were an employee. They are HIGHLY protective of their brand and their feeling was, if you post something and identify yourself as an employee, you are representing the brand and you are not allowed to do that. I seriously doubt that policy has changed. Apple had certain rules you were best not to cross.
Sounds like Apple is seeking for another class action lawsuit with a $30 Million settlement 🤣
 
Company policies regarding social media when social media first came about were often laughed at. It was a case of “ my social and private life are separate from company and work life so I can say and do what I want”
Until people were stupid enough to add the people and managers they worked with on Facebook and then post a status saying how terrible their job was and they would get warnings or dismissed from the company entirely.
We had a few scandals at the company I worked for which made the news and people often blindly shared articles about it on their feed from all the news companies discussing it and the next morning these individuals would be drafted in to get a written warning.
It depends on who you work for and who your management is. I’ve worked with some great managers who would let things slide and just have a private word with you if anything went down, whereas some managers would follow the book and be complete corporate tossers who lived and breathed the company policies yet half of them never adhered to them themselves.
i imagine a company like Apple however wants to remain as squeaky clean as possible. If one staff member starts posting videos it becomes a trend and they all do it, irrespective of topic. If she was just discussing things then that’s fair enough but her contract may be against that altogether and if that’s the case it’s her own fault for not reading said contract. Having said that I hope she doesn’t lose her job and management deal with it fairly , in this day and age though even breathing wrong can get you the sack
Bingo. As a former Apple employee I can tell you that what she could and should have done was to direct the victim to Apple support.
 
Many people seem to think her intentions should over rule the policies Apple has put into place for the overall good of the company. Her intentions are noble. She broke several policies she was very aware of. It is pretty much that simple.

The Apple media nows this will make great material for their forums as eveindenced by this thread.

Great intentions or not, she should not have done what she did. And she most definitely should not have gone public with her complaints after she received notice from Apple. Pushing Apple's back to the wall in public will not work in her favor. That was very foolish, especially for someone that says they love their job and want to stay where they are. She knows she is in trouble and does that? Does she understand the consequences for Apple in terms of policy exceptions and enforcemen? Very, very foolish. Not very smart of this woman.
So which of the 'several policies' did she break that would lead to dismissal?
 
My favourite on forums I visit are people that comment and/or advertise for a company they own or work for. They always put something like "I represent x company but my comments and views are my own". No, they are not. Anything you say is a reflection of the company you represent.

And they wonder why they get fired (and it has happened) for having the views they have!
Really, do you live in Stalinist Russia or somewhere that similarly doesn't allow you any personal/private life? People don't 'represent' a company if they aren't actually 'on company time' or specifically representing the company at some event.
 
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Humm, don’t know how to go about it.

I lived in an era were people would give advice one to one. Someone within the circle of friends or people familiar would call, or email that was just it.

Having an employee giving customer support at will to half a million to millions of people over the company products is an entirely different matter. What if an advice goes wrong? Nope. She should have directed the person to customer support or supplied links to the company docs.

It’s just common sense. There is no freedom without common sense. I feel people are loosing it with the social media histeria.

The fact that than she then went public over what seams to be a reasonable internal company procedure … well … shows that common sense is not her strong.
The advice she gave WAS/IS Apple customer service advice. Don't remove the iPhone for the Apple ID. The only risk of the 'advice going wrong' is not following it.
 
She looks terrible, speaks irritatingly, her behavior is "weird". If I imagine someone like that as an Apple employee, I lose confidence in that company
So, we should only hire attractive, well spoken, relatable ppl at all times? So, probably 99% of the population would be unemployed by your 'standards'.
 
Specifically, in their messages to the victim, the thieves tried to convince them to remove the stolen ‌iPhone‌ from their Apple ID account to bypass Activation Lock.

I don't get it. Obviously you shouldn't follow the advice of the thieves that stole your phone. You don't need a tiktoker telling you that.

I also don't get why the tiktoker has to mention that she works for Apple. What she says after that is public information.

I don’t know when it happened exactly but apparently right now everyone gets all information from TikTok. So, CCP mission accomplished I guess.

But yeah, she didn’t have to mention that she works for Apple. And her Apple handler didn’t have to react so badly. But this is yet another sign that Apple has gone full corporate.

I don’t want to hear any more rhetoric from them about here’s to the crazy ones, think different, etc. Not just because of this incident, but that’s just straight up hypocrisy from them anymore. They are as corporate as anyone else these days.

”Sorry but if I showed even just a little bit of tolerance, we couldn’t call it a zero tolerance policy.”
 
Really, do you live in Stalinist Russia or somewhere that similarly doesn't allow you any personal/private life? People don't 'represent' a company if they aren't actually 'on company time' or specifically representing the company at some event.

You're wrong in many instances, it's ok to be wrong. It suits you.
 
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It is crazy for a company like Apple to treat employees who are famous on social media this way. No matter what happened behind the scenes, Apple makes the impression to all her followers of a arrogant, stupid company. Before firing a celebrity You should think twice.

Maybe lets not be a careless employee and let out who I work for, or better yet, did she sign anything with the Company that she was employed by regarding statements about said company? I haven't seen anything that says she did or didn't... so at this point we don't know. But it would surprise me if there is something in her contract about stating you work for the Company...

Yes lets blame the big bad company when we only know one side of the story... Because yes, a company that has a brand to protect, is stupid and arrogant.
 
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Apple is hired too many in the box thinkers . They have a very curated and a very complex narrative that they must maintain although they used to be more into the guerrilla marketing side of things now not so much.
 
This is the sad part. Individuals should be able to have their own viewpoints and should be able to discuss them in the public forum.
They can. And they do. Take, for example, icanhazmac. I don’t know how they’re employed and don’t HAVE to know how they’re employed in order to read these words here. All I can tell is that they MAY or MAY NOT have a penchant for burnination.
 
She was going so well till the last 2 paragraphs.
Assumptions ahoy!

Probably won’t be employed for much longer. Though her tone about it all seems like she’s had enough of the job anyway.

These type of big companies seem to be minus craic to their staff when it comes to improv customer relations
 
Not surprised to see how many misogynists exist in the comment section of MacRumors. If anything, she was doing Apple a favor and should be commended for her actions, not reprimanded. This went from positive brand recognition to potentially mixed/negative. Seems like a misstep by a middle manager under pressure from a VP/Director.
 
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Apple needs to get off their high horse. We know what products are gonna be months before. Leaks are aplenty. It’s an ongoing joke now. Apples just pissed she’s talking about Chinese hackers/resellers boo hoo. She’s speaking truth. This is what happens. And trying to protect people from scams is a good thing.
Apple’s not the only one on a high horse. This person could have, quite safely, submitted a post to someone’s blog (Or something like Medium) and laid out all the same truths. Or provided the entire story to someone else to publicize if the ultimate altruistic goal was “Helping others”! and not self promotion. However, putting the truth out THAT way wouldn’t have increased their social media clout and would not be a story that any of us would be writing about. It was a risk they took, and, if it works out in their favor, then it was a good risk.
 
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