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Reliable Leaker Known as 'Kang' Hit With Warning From Apple
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Yes, if the competition found out about leaked info about those awesome innovations like Memoji costumes, Apple would be in serious trouble indeed.
Apple's commercial information is not classified. Only governments can classify information. There's no parallel here at all.
No, private entities can too. The violation of such is called industrial espionage.
Example: see Industrial Espionage Act of 1996
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Companies can have trade secrets, however, which is the private sector equivalent. Unauthorized disclosure, or obtaining it, can lead to civil, as well as criminal penalties.
It was a well thought out move by apple to downplay Jon Prosser's credibility. Most are just too predisposed to understand that..
Apple has crossed the line and is trying to bully bloggers and journalists in this case. If the guy is sneaking into your offices to steal information then there are existing laws and he can be prosecuted. That's not what's going on here and Apple knows it. If some info falls into a blogger's lap then the blogger is under no obligation to keep it secret. Apple, if you want to keep a secret then you need to make sure the info never reaches the blogger. Intimidation tactics just make you look bad and will not be successful.
Edit: And characterizing this guy as a "leaker" is completely bogus. Is he on Apple's payroll? If not then he's not leaking information, he's a blogger informing the public. Now someone on Apple's payroll may have leaked the info to Kang, in that case Apple needs to go after the leaker, not this journalist.
Edit: And characterizing this guy as a "leaker" is completely bogus. Is he on Apple's payroll? If not then he's not leaking information, he's a blogger informing the public. Now someone on Apple's payroll may have leaked the info to Kang, in that case Apple needs to go after the leaker, not this journalist.
A lot would depend on how he got the information :
1. If someone simply sent it to him on their own, then, yes, he probably is protected
2. If he solicited the material or worked with someone at Apple to get it then he could be taken to court under US law
Since he is in China that is probably moot.
Depending on the situation they can go after both. IMHO, Apple in this case wants to scare Kang and his sources into silence.
There is only room for one Kang in my heart.
Chang > Kang
Klingon General Chang (Christopher Plummer)
A few things y'all need to know about the these leakers.
First, the reason that leakers like kang can predict so accurately is that they can receive information about the equipment in advance and, in the last two years, watch the recorded special events in advance. Why? Because they are from China or Taiwan, they made accessories for iPhone/iPad and other products. Kang personally has an online shop selling his own accessories. He also stated that he personally knew some of the larger parts manufacturers and implied that it was those who had shared information with him. The reason their information is so accurate is that their source of information is directly from Apple itself. So think again does kang have an obligation not to reveal his dreams to the general public?
Second, There really aren't any official engineers from Apple who would reveal information to someone like jon prosser anymore. I'm sure some of you can tell from the posts on Reddit by people claiming to be Apple engineers that it's all ********. Why? Because Apple has a very strict system of secrecy within different departments, and the penalties are very high. So when you see a leak claiming to be sourced from an Apple engineer, you know it's all bollocks.
So if you really want to get some advance information on Apple products. Go follow people like kang, l0vetodream who have direct contact with supply chain and accessory production, or follow Apple mouthpieces like mark gurman, or analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo (even kang and l0vetodream often praise kuo's analysis). Stop paying attention to people like jon prosser who can't tell if a source is reliable or not, it's not worth it.
First, the reason that leakers like kang can predict so accurately is that they can receive information about the equipment in advance and, in the last two years, watch the recorded special events in advance. Why? Because they are from China or Taiwan, they made accessories for iPhone/iPad and other products. Kang personally has an online shop selling his own accessories. He also stated that he personally knew some of the larger parts manufacturers and implied that it was those who had shared information with him. The reason their information is so accurate is that their source of information is directly from Apple itself. So think again does kang have an obligation not to reveal his dreams to the general public?
Second, There really aren't any official engineers from Apple who would reveal information to someone like jon prosser anymore. I'm sure some of you can tell from the posts on Reddit by people claiming to be Apple engineers that it's all ********. Why? Because Apple has a very strict system of secrecy within different departments, and the penalties are very high. So when you see a leak claiming to be sourced from an Apple engineer, you know it's all bollocks.
So if you really want to get some advance information on Apple products. Go follow people like kang, l0vetodream who have direct contact with supply chain and accessory production, or follow Apple mouthpieces like mark gurman, or analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo (even kang and l0vetodream often praise kuo's analysis). Stop paying attention to people like jon prosser who can't tell if a source is reliable or not, it's not worth it.
Going into a legal battle against Apple is financially suicidal. They don't need much of a case, they don't need a strategy to win. Their strategy is probably just to make the case last and use every loophole in the system to make it very expensive. They probably communicated that fact to Kang.
Possibly. Apple could also want to pressure him to reveal his sources so they can punish them. For example, if a case manufacturer leaked to him they could simply cut them off from advance information on the next iPhone, which would send a message to the rest.
As Voltaire said:
Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres
The highly reliable Apple leaker known as "Kang" and a number of other unspecified leakers have reportedly received warnings from lawyers representing Apple.
According to posts on Kang's Weibo account, Apple recently commissioned a law firm to send admonitory letters to a number of leakers.
The letter purportedly cautioned leakers that they must not disclose information about unreleased Apple projects because it may give Apple's competitors valuable information and "mislead customers, because what is disclosed may not be accurate."
Apple purportedly grabbed screenshots of Kang's Weibo as evidence, which included him talking about problems he experienced with the iPhone, product release dates, and purchase suggestions for his followers, as well as more casual posts.
Kang went on to give his personal opinion on the situation. Kang explained that since "I have never published undisclosed product pictures" or sold his information, Apple must take exception to "riddles and dreams" about its undisclosed projects. Apple leaks vaguely characterized as "dreams" have been popularized in recent years by leakers such as "L0vetodream," providing some insiders with a fun mechanism to hint at Apple's future plans without giving too much away.
Even "dreaming will violate their confidentiality mechanism," according to Kang, who said that under Apple's logic "if I have a dream, Apple's competitors will obtain effective information." "Without sending pictures or leaking pictures, I am still used as a target," he said.
Kang commented that "I won't post riddles and dreams in the future," suggested that he will be deleting some previous posts on social media, and expressed the need to "tone back" posting about Apple since "talking will be audited."
Kang argued that he had not misled consumers and said that he was still within his right to make his feelings known about Apple's smartphone experience, remarking that "your company should not interfere with my Weibo."
He also warned other bloggers, saying that if they do not want to "cause trouble... then don't post anything they don't want to tell the public." Even if "you haven't signed any agreement... they think it is infringement and abuse of commercial information."
Kang has been among the most reliable Apple leakers, with successive detailed leaks about Apple's future product and software plans that turned out to be correct. Kang leaked the full details of the iPhone 12 lineup and the HomePod mini before they launched. According to AppleTrack, Kang also correctly leaked a plethora of information about the 2020 iPhone SE, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6, iPad 8, and iPad Air 4 prior to launch. In addition, Kang leaked extensive details about Apple's software updates for WWDC in 2020.
Article Link: Reliable Leaker Known as 'Kang' Hit With Warning From Apple
Base on the BIG DATA manipulation, and the real life example from Cambridge Analytica (FB data leaks), now I believe that someone is working to degrade APPLE brand image, by constantly sending false expectations to consumers. So that consumers will disappointed with APPLE products and services.
Probably someone pay for the "leakers" to work and keep release the "wrong dream/expectations/leaks". It is now data war-time.
Only a very small percentage of Apple users even hear about leaks, and it's a smaller subset still that build up their expectations over them. I seriously doubt faking them would even be worth the effort, however minor it may be.
Only normal consumers will trust the leaks, and they was thought the leaks products were the new launched.
You never know how viral the "leaks" info circulate around, some use it to create traffic (for ads), some use it to do some other things.
Not surprised, any Youtube video talk about APPLE or TESLA will get very high viewing traffic. No matter it has the correct information or not.
You can edit your post if you want to add further thoughts, there's no need to reply to one post three separate times.
"Normal" consumers won't even hear about leaks. Most people just buy the upgrade of whatever they already have, or what a friend or sales rep recommends.
That makes no sense. Unless it's rumour sites making the leaks, then the leakers wouldn't get any benefit from ads.
I think you're replying to the wrong comment here. Or possibly even the wrong thread.
You underestimate how the information circulate in social media/communication apps. That's what I can say.
Yes but at the same time don’t overestimate their power either. It’s a hard balance but a balance that needs to be made nonetheless.
Most normal consumers never hear about the leaks. I get asked sometimes "Will the next iPhone/iPad/Mac be better?;" the answer of course is "probably." I don't get asked "Will it be made of transparent aluminum and foldable?" We tend to think becasue we hear rumors everyone hears rumors. Sites like Macrumors are echo chambers.
Relative to Apple's customer base I bet it is just a tiny fraction of that base; and probably a lot of overlap in viewership. Most consumers simply do not are about wha Apple or Tesla may do next.
Look at Macrumors, that has 10's of millions of unique views each month. Compare to Apple's user base of about ~1 billion users, that's 1% of Apple's customer base.
Exactly. Most consumers don't know much about existing Apple products, let alone leaks. They want an iPhone/iPad/Mac now and don't know or care about rumor sites.
Apple is paranoid about leaks, IMHO, because of the possibility internal sources are revealing proprietary information and if leakers are getting it so might competitors. Going after journalists is easy since most do not have the financial resources to fight Apple, even if they'd win I the end. If the Post or Times was publishing leaks they'd probably tell Apple to pound sand and relish the publicity from a fight.