it's a nothing burger, move along nothing to see but fake drama.
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- Thread starter anonymous-A.S
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Sorry but the multi-step sting didn’t get your sister fired….. her irresponsibility did.
It seems to me the sister is at fault? She was an Apple employee and doubtless signed a confidentiality agreement along with her contract of employment, if she let her brother have various pieces of information that he put on the internet she is liable.
I know it’s a site called MacRumors, I know we all love to shoot the breeze about Apple products, but doing these things consistently for a while is a pretty serious breach.
I know it’s a site called MacRumors, I know we all love to shoot the breeze about Apple products, but doing these things consistently for a while is a pretty serious breach.
(Note: I'm not a lawyer. I do not have any privileged information about Apple or its employee practices.)
I doubt the leaker is "clean" and immune to legal action from Apple. First, it is very likely that, given how secrecy, compartmentalization, and control over information are deeply encoded into Apple's corporate DNA, Apple employees are subject to a comprehensive and far-reaching non-disclosure agreement. Second, as a possible analog, many prosecutions for insider trading in stocks and other financial instruments involve both the leaker and the recipient of information.
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ETA: This thread reminded me of this insider trading case, where the installation of a hidden video camera over a fax machine shows how far investigators can go when chasing after leaks:
According to a June 2002 sentencing memorandum for Khan, the earlier case arose after Intel suspected Rajaratnam was getting tips from an Intel insider because he was predicting Intel’s revenue “with extreme accuracy.”
Intel set up a hidden video camera that on March 6, 1998, recorded Khan, employed as a product marketing engineer at the company, faxing an important report concerning Intel’s three main Pentium processors to Rajaratnam.
Galleon's Rajaratnam was suspected a decade ago
Federal investigators suspected a decade ago that Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam was trading on inside information but were unable to prove he was breaking the law.
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I think it is funny the OP's actions are being criticized on a site devoted to rumors and leaks about Apple. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised if the OP's "confession" is an attempt to cover her or his tracks or if the OP themselves was an Apple employee or contractor and the actual source of the information.
Pointing at nobody in particular but there is some stark hypocrisy on this thread. A select few criticising this guy for what he has done yet we are on a site that relishes in rumours and leaks. We all discuss this sort of thing and it drives discussion pre release on so many products. I think some of the folks taking pleasure in this going Pete Tong for this guy need to assess what they’ve been discussing on here in the past before taking the moral high ground now.
Yeah, but there's a difference between disseminating info from public sources as rumors and conjecture vs taking actual info as an employee that you signed paper work agreeing to not do those things and disseminating that info out. Things he could have been gleaning documents that have terms like "Apple Confidential", "Apple Top Secret", "Apple Classified" on the documents he may have gotten this info from. Conjecture on my part ofc on where and how he got the info. But most places with IP on documents have such classifications of secrecy and non-disclosure on them.
Apple's not going to gain anything from suing them. this will most likely be the end of it.
Sad to hear what happened. I hope everything gets sorted out with minimal fuss.
I doubt Apple would care about any financial penalties, given its size and scale. But Apple is very likely to be extremely interested in sending a message to other leakers, sending a message to its employees and contractors, and sending a message to publishers of leaks.
What an extraordinary - yet weirdly compelling - thread.
I’m aware of all that being a designer myself, but there are certain Chinese leakers who get applauded and these people have gotten their info from people just like the OP. I would never leak the information I work with and have signed NDA’s with many car manufacturers in my time, just pointing out how hypocritical it is of people to judge here when their threads have been received with open arms in the past.
You make a fair point about double standards - especially on a site that goes by the name of "MacRumors", and thus, trades in "rumours" re Apple products.
Now, I will comment that I find - found - the tone of the original post extraordinary - and more than a touch hyperbolic; when I read it, the emotion in the post struck me as quite excessive, excessive in that what was described did not seem to me to merit such an expenditure of pure, raw, emotion.
Did the OP not expect - not think - that there would be consequences for such an action?
Companies will react savagely when their profits are threatened, for one thing.
For another, an employee does have a duty of care, and some responsibilities - usually clarified by contract (and possibly further buttressed by some sort of NDA) while they draw a salary from the company that employs them, and it is foolish to assume that companies will not react if they consider that such actions may threaten their interests, and profits, and the integrity of their research, and the products that are the result of this research.
I marvel at the carelessness, and casual cluelessness - the sheer self-centred immaturity and utter self-absorption - of many who live their lives online, who behave and blunder and post material with a complete lack of thought or care (or responsibility) for the privacy (personal and professional) of others, who are blithely unconcerned and uncomprehending about the effects of this possible lack of privacy (until this bites them when they are identified and fired or fined, or pursued through the courts), and all of this in a world primed to react to, and reward - with notice, and lots of attention - instant news, irrespective of whether it is true or false.
@KaliYoni and @The-Real-Deal82: I hear you both, and you make some excellent points.
However, it is possible to agree with you re double standards, and also to think that the OP and his sister behaved with a breath-taking lack of responsibility and a lamentable lack of thought, and of basic intelligence.
I hold no brief for large, wealthy companies.
Nevertheless, the old adage: "If you take the shilling, you follow the drum" still applies. This means that if you work for a company, certain obligations follow from that.
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after the iPhone X guy got fired (who was pretty high ranking, if you don't recall the specifics) I'm shocked anyone at Apple says anything to family about new products. It sucks not being able to discuss your job like its military secrets but at the end of the day, if you want to work at Apple you have to play by their rules.
I love leaks as much as the next person and I know MacRumors runs on them, but internet cool points aren't worth losing your job over.
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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Agreed! This was a wild story. Sucked for the dad, he seemed like a very nice/humble person.
Full Vlog from the daughter below. Skip to 2:10
Honestly, I don’t really give a crap about rumors and leaks. Arguing for two weeks on what’s a possible change in a button? I truly don’t care. The “rumors” part is probably the least compelling part of this website, and I am sure many other users share my sentiment.
I am here for the forums, not for the news. That's it.
As an engineer, I can only say that what you did and the forthcoming consequences are justified. Good luck.
Same. I am interested in some kind of news, namely the intersection between politics and tech, and the intersection between lifestyle and tech. Other than that, the only thing I truly care about is the forums.
Nah, it's the lack of common sense from the OP.
Professional analysts and reporters have well defined rules and SOP on how they leak info. There's a reason why their sources are never caught.
Just as Apple doesn't sole source their components whenever possible, guys like Kuo and Gurman do not sole source their info. They verify, wait, and only publish when the source is diluted. As a result, their sources are never caught.
Directly leaking from a family member is just silly. OP might not care about himself, but he should think of others involved.
We're criticizing the method of sourcing info, not info itself.
I’m sure we are here for a multitude of reasons.
Sure we do, I simply don’t subscribe to the automatism according to which if I am on MR it’s because of rumors.
This relates very much to common sense.
If the leak is from the supply chain, what is Apple going to do? Cut off Cirrus Logic or Foxconn? There's nothing Apple can do.
If you're a lone engineer working for Apple, you're at high risk. The more downstream you are, the higher the risk. There's a reason why Ross Young can leak all day long - it's because his info is all upstream. Apple's not going to cut off Samsung, BOE, or LG.