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Former Apple Employee Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets Related to Autonomous Car Project [Updated]

I have a hard time believing Apple is so stupid they only caught him because he was an idiot and practically gave himself away. I suspect the truth is that he (and his network traffic) was being monitored because of the ethnicity of his name. Which is the smart thing to do. And exactly what I would do (I own a business, too). But probably the illegal thing to do - thus Apple's lame explanation of the sequence of events. Fake news.
 
citysnaps said:
I disagree. Criminal penalties, in general, while of course being far from perfect and many times unjust, are still a deterrent.
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Agree to disagree to an extent since it seems that neither of us are taking a binary stance. A 3rd strike penalty might make a criminal take a beat before thinking about robbing another bank. The up to 10 yr/$250K threat isn't going to stop an IP thief any more than the up to 5 yr/$250K threat is going to stop someone from pirating a movie or music. News organizations love to quote the maximum sentence because it lends gravity to their reporting.
There are tons of studies related to penalties as a deterrence. Most agree that longer/harsher penalties aren't really a deterrent. Here's a short piece from the National Institute of Justice.
 
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ugahairydawgs said:
This guy is either incredibly naive or incredibly stupid, and I almost lean towards the former. Surely a guy in that kind of position would know that Apple can track him with access badges, security cameras and monitor all of his network traffic for anything he would be searching for and downloading. So to take physical equipment out of the building (on camera) and then transfer proprietary data to a personal laptop knowing that you're on the way out.....just doesn't make logical sense.

You would think if you're pulling off a master heist like that you'd just leave for China as soon as you walk out of the building on April 30. But he stuck around. And willingly gave up personal devices for Apple to search.

Who knows....maybe he's both naive and stupid.
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Or he was under intense pressure. We don't know if he was motivated by carrot or stick. If he was a Chinese national, their gov't can really bend their arms to support development in China.
 
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69Mustang said:
Agree to disagree to an extent since it seems that neither of us are taking a binary stance. A 3rd strike penalty might make a criminal take a beat before thinking about robbing another bank. The up to 10 yr/$250K threat isn't going to stop an IP thief any more than the up to 5 yr/$250K threat is going to stop someone from pirating a movie or music. News organizations love to quote the maximum sentence because it lends gravity to their reporting.
There are tons of studies related to penalties as a deterrence. Most agree that longer/harsher penalties aren't really a deterrent. Here's a short piece from the National Institute of Justice.
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I agree. And we're on the same page. But to think, like the person I responded to, that a bit of community service is an adequate penalty for this alleged crime, is a joke. With zero deterrents, as an extreme off course, it would pretty much be a free-for-all for all sorts of criminal activity.

Criminal penalties as deterrents do work. But with a big load of caveats that I alluded to previously.
 
This is the biggest news you'll hear this year, last year, next year, and any year in recent memory or future predictions.
 
eoblaed said:
Well, that's going to be a conversation starter on his resume.
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Yea, if the next employment even reads it. When you take into account so many workers can get a job with fake experience. How would it look when you re hired but all you really care about is "i'm being hired, but all I *really* wanna do is steal secrets"

Roller said:
That's his reward for asking Siri the best way to steal Apple's IP.
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lol... I wonder if you could put the blame of technology "Siri told me to do it"
 
China's whole industry is based on stolen trade secrets and technology. The price you have to pay if are too dependent on China.
 
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Think how duplicitous, smooth, and effective Apple's security team must have been to get this guy to agree to internal interviews before turning this over to the FBI. There's no way he would have agreed to that unless they gave him false assurances or the implication of such. Maybe something like they'd keep it in house if he talked, etc. Either that or he's really dumb or Apple has a culture where employees think Apple has the authority of the police (they do seem to create an intimidating work environment). Why else would you say anything to them? There's no benefit to you unless Apple tricks you into thinking there's a benefit or you've been so brainwashed you believe Apple has jurisdiction over legal matters, which is possible given the para-military nature of their security teams. It's a bit like Scientology. They can't legally keep you locked on the premise but they can make you think that they can.
 
China is constantly stealing American technology (with the blessing of their government that even encourages people and tries to get them to do it), and more needs to be done about it. For one American tech companies should stop hiring so many Chinese nationals.
 
AgentAnonymous said:
China is constantly stealing American technology (with the blessing of their government that even encourages people and tries to get them to do it), and more needs to be done about it. For one American tech companies should stop hiring so many Chinese nationals.
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No alternative. How many Americans enroll in graduate school in science and engineering? Probably can be counted on one hand. The key is to have more Americans to study engineering. I'm not sure how that can be achieved.
 
swingerofbirch said:
Think how duplicitous, smooth, and effective Apple's security team must have been to get this guy to agree to internal interviews before turning this over to the FBI. There's no way he would have agreed to that unless they gave him false assurances or the implication of such. Maybe something like they'd keep it in house if he talked, etc. Either that or he's really dumb or Apple has a culture where employees think Apple has the authority of the police (they do seem to create an intimidating work environment). Why else would you say anything to them? There's no benefit to you unless Apple tricks you into thinking there's a benefit or you've been so brainwashed you believe Apple has jurisdiction over legal matters, which is possible given the para-military nature of their security teams. It's a bit like Scientology. They can't legally keep you locked on the premise but they can make you think that they can.
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However it came together, all I can say is well-done!
 
Rolling the dice on foreign employees always brings the risk that they are more loyal...to someone else.
Especially if $$$ are involved.
A fitting fortune cookie - "You will find rove in prison"
 
I am glad that Apple takes these matters seriously. The theft of intellectual property affects Apple, its shareholders, and more importantly, its workforce. I hope that aggressive enforcement against this sort of theft continues so that would-be thieves think twice before before stealing such important data. Great work Apple!
 
So it is considered legal in the US to post in public such info regarding an individual ?
 
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