From Apple’s internal memo:
Leakers do not simply lose their jobs at Apple. In some cases, they face jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and theft of trade secrets both classified as federal crimes. In 2017, Apple caught 29 leakers. 12 of those were arrested. Among those were Apple employees, contractors and some partners in Apple’s supply chain. These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere. “The potential criminal consequences of leaking are real,” says Tom Moyer of Global Security, “and that can become part of your personal and professional identity forever.”
I have a hard time understanding the motivation for employees to leak information about upcoming products. I think this is a smart move by Apple, telling its employees that there are consequences for their actions. The fact that 12 people were arrested should scare the hell out of anyone considering leaking information.
Apple is not fucking around anymore. You’ve been warned.
I don’t think Apple’s ever been fucking around with this. People are just stupid, Apple hires included. It’s as if we’re all really bad at doing ethical math and risk analysis.
Most of the leaks have been from the hardware partners. But there have been some shockingly bad leaks from inside Apple. I would be interested to know which of them were in the “jail” group.
We’ll have to rely on someone else to leak that information. 🙂
Information wants to be free. The more you try to constrain it, the stronger it attempts to break out of those bonds.
I hate this expression. Information doesn’t want to be free. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have to speak, write or type.
Information wants to be secret. We only figured out how to break that between 350,000 and 150,000 years ago. We deserve credit as a species for this! 🙂
But as soon as we speak that information is freed, and will spread rapidly and further based on its value. It will be literally unstoppable. This is not a meaningless expression. It’s not trite. It’s observed fact, even if a cliche.
Trade secrets don’t want to be free. Information that is controlled by its owner doesn’t want to be free, not until it’s deliberately freed by its owner. Also, personifying ‘information’ as if it has a will of its own is ridiculous. Information, like any commodity, is managed by humans inside systems with rules. If the humans responsible release it in violation of those rules, they suffer consequences, which is what’s being clarified here. If that information is stolen from its containment system by hackers, those humans are also subject to consequences, and the message here is that those actions are equivalent; disclosure is theft – theft of data, theft of control, theft of timing, and it will not be tolerated.
Oh lord. Such a trite, meaningless, tired, old cliche. Information doesn’t “want” anything.
The more secret something is, the more people want to talk about it. This isn’t a construct of information’s willpower, this is simply people’s lack of willpower.
This is well put. There’s always got to be a bridge to take the information from secret to public. The fact that people are weak-willed about doing so DOES reflect poorly on the person who does so.
I’m wondering what recently came out that has them sending out memos to remind people? Or are they just warming up to protecting the upcoming pro gear?
Yeah, iOS 11.3 and recent macOS changes were likely going to come out of third party developers anyway.
The ARM chip rumor, likely.
“I have a hard time understanding the motivation for employees to leak information about upcoming products.”
It’s called ‘money’.
I wonder how Mark Gurman feels, having been responsible for probably many of those firings and/or legal troubles.
I have a very strong feeling Apples wordings regarding “you’re getting played” is in direct reference to Gurman. I know for a fact Apple executives don’t think too highly of him, and he just strikes me as that kind of weasel who swoons these Apple employees and then pounces on their information.
And before anyone tries to paint Apple as the villain, this is something any corporation would do. You don’t just leak corporate trade secrets and not expect consequences. Especially when the stakes are so high, as they are for Apple. The minute Apples plans get leaked the entire industry pays attention.
Unless, of course, you leak to approved outlets.
If Apple though it was ok to put back doors in its systems, then they would have used them by now to eavesdrop on Mark Gurman and have all his sources at Apple arrested. Wait, hmm
Not exactly. As someone who has been leaked to in the past, rarely is money involved. Leakers rarely if ever ask for money for their information.
“I wonder how Mark Gurman feels…” I promise you, he loves the attention and the notoriety (and the money). In no way, shape, or form is Gurman “responsible for…those firings and/or legal troubles”. The *leakers* are. The only thing Gurman would feel is disappointment for losing a source.
Which there is *zero* evidence of. But it’s a fun rumor people like to throw around.
Manipulation can be seen as direct responsiblity (I’m sure I don’t need to explain how many court cases there have been over an individual being manipulated into committing a crime).
Which is why Apple pointed that out in the memo. Don’t get played by snake oil salesmen.
Either way, he’s a weasel. He’s also not very insightful. HIs editorials always make me want to puke.
Or, they’re simply diligent about keeping true to their principles while pursing internal investigations in a thorough manner.
“Hmm.”
Ugh, what a horrific, pretend-poetry cliché, adopted by children who were neither taught about the value of creative accomplishment nor raised with a conscience.
Holding onto the idea of a Marxist paradise? Good luck finding real-world examples of it that didn’t turn into primitive dictatorships.
I worked at Emagic, the company that made Logic, when it was bought by Apple so I became an Apple employee. When they closed the U.S. Emagic office I decided not to relocate to Texas to work in customer support. They kept me on as an independent contractor for a year to do software testing. One of my main projects was to test GarageBand before it was introduced. They also provided me a prototype audio interface. So I was in that exact scenario of having leakable information. Personally, I was never tempted in the least. For one, I loved the work I was doing and didn’t want to risk losing the gig. And, for two, I promised I wouldn’t do that so it wasn’t an option.
There was a leak of the hardware interface (which was never released) and Apple made a big, although ultimately unsuccessful, effort to find the culprit. Search for “Asteroid” on Daring Fireball and you can piece together that story.
GarageBand, on the other hand, never leaked as far as I know. So the first time the world heard of it was when Steve Jobs introduced it at Macworld in 2004 (https://youtu.be/Q2jq4iRyULg). That was way more exciting to me than whatever temporary thrill I would have had from leaking information. I was really proud of our team that we were able to keep GarageBand secret until its introduction.
I’m sure Gurman is just fucking thrilled he got the scoop on the memo, to be honest.
“The fact that 12 people were arrested…” Any *actual* evidence of this? Or are we all just going on Apple’s say so? I can’t find anything on it but I don’t have access to a LexisNexis database.
Good point.
Absolutely. For better or worse, he’s a journalist. They live for shit like this. He would have creamed his pants when he got this memo.
What value would remain afterwards that would be sufficient incentive for creators to make anything new? Do you honestly believe that Cory Doctorow’s business model is a practical way for everyone, in every discipline, to support themselves?
Thank you for keeping quiet. Seriously. 🙂 While rumours are often scandalously delicious, they really don’t hold a candle to seeing something in action.
Edit: Btw, can you put spaces around the URL? It’s unclickable as is.
Misappropriation of trade secrets is handled as a matter of civil law almost everywhere in the US. I don’t think it reflects well on California and local law enforcement that they have allowed themselves to become the enforcement division for and routinely use criminal enforcement at the direction of Silicon Valley private companies.
What bullshiot on your part and on the part of every tech journalist.
If you’re serious about this, stop reporting the antics of mark Gurman, whose “accuracy” is based on leaks.
You’re kidding, right? Gurman and the tech press can’t resist the leak machine. Quit reporting on it.
Kidding about what? And I *don’t* report or write about rumours I can’t independently confirm for myself.
If Apple is “not fucking around”, they’re doing so ineffectually – given that the memo about leaking got leaked itself. But you know, the memo about not leaking ALWAYS gets leaked, right? (Maybe even leaked deliberately.)
I’d be curious to see just who has been criminally charged – anyone in SiliValley care to poke around in police reports to verify Apple’s claims of arrests? I’ve seen speculation (forget where) that indicated most are likely NOT employees, but rather supply chain workers. Would be interesting to see some documentation on that.