Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will hunt down every last leaker among employees

[nanoguy]

In context: Like most tech companies out there, Apple has been experiencing a lot of leaks about unreleased or unfinished products as of late. The Cupertino giant has built a reputation of being among the most secretive in the world, while some tech companies are usually tolerant of information that goes out a bit ahead of time, especially when it builds up hype that spreads like wildfire.

Earlier this year, Apple's legal team went on a crusade against reputable leakers with a clear warning message that they should stop sharing details about unreleased products and services, as they could mislead customers and give competitors access to information they shouldn't have.

However, those are not the only reasons the company is against this practice. In a recent email sent to employees earlier this week (leaked to the press), CEO Tim Cook reassured that the company will hunt and find those who have shared confidential information. At the same time, he expressed that such people "do not belong" at Apple.

I could do a lot of damage to Apple but I'm not that kind of person, I only publish things that are not too secret that cannot harm Apple in any way

— Majin Bu 🫵 (@MajinBuOfficial) September 22, 2021

Cook doesn't appear to take into consideration that some leaks may be educated guesses made by people with knowledge of the tech supply chain, as well as innovations that are announced by suppliers well before they make it into commercial products.

It also helps that many new products announced in recent years have been incremental upgrades over mature designs. There are, of course, people with real access to confidential information from Cupertino's developments, but they don't seem to be moved by Cook's memo.

In any case, whatever Apple is doing to curb leaks appears to be working so far. According to reliable leaker Jon Prosser, sources from China's supply chain are less willing to share any interesting bits of information they might have. Prosser believes the current situation will be short-lived, but only time will tell.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/91391-apple-ceo-tim-cook-company-hunt-down-every.html

 

[winjer]

1984

 

[NumberSix]

He was a lot funnier when he played Lily Savage.

 

[m4a4]

Not surprised. These people are breaking their NDA's to leak.

However, they shouldn't be bullying the reporters (aka, the ones without the NDA).

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

I like how even the policy to hunt down the leakers was leaked. Good luck plugging your holey boat Timothy! You've had this policy of secrecy for decades and Apple is leakier than ever. It only works when you're a smaller company; there's no way you're escaping leaks with a market cap of $2.4T.

 

[Tams80]

Ohhh, scary Tim.

How about some 'oh no, she isn't; oh yes, she isn't' instead. It's more entertaining and valuable to the world.

 

[Cubi Dorf]

First world trillion dollars company problems.

 

[Xallisto]

Funny that when u behave disgracefully that your employees also behave that way.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Yeah good luck with that. You going to control your chinese employees too, the ones run by thrid parties that have to be surrounded by suicide nets? The outsourced work that apple relies on for some hardware?

A ship this big cannot avoid leaks. Tim should be spending less time playing whack a mole and more time listening to the macintosh buyers that are progressively moving away from apple's ecosystem or finally putting a type C port on the iphone.

 

[VitalyT]

This is almost like a meme...

 

[Lozzy]

Apple (and several others) so badly need broken up and taken down a peg. Too big, too powerful.

EDIT: LMAO @ Lily Savage

 

[ZedRM]

More evidence that Tim Cook needs to go! Effing mental-midget needs the boot!

 

[waclark]

A crusade against reputable leakers

"Reputable"? If you're under NDA and leaking company confidential info, then sorry but you're not reputable.

Now, if you want to change that to "industry pundits who make good educated guesses about future products", then fine. That works.

Any company employee sharing company confidential info should be reprimanded and/or fired.

 

[JamesBlond]

This is almost like a meme...

Not far from the truth either

 

[zulu53]

Not surprised. These people are breaking their NDA's to leak.

However, they shouldn't be bullying the reporters (aka, the ones without the NDA).

Most NDA's are not worth the paper they are written on. Tilted completely in the favor of the Company; so its no big surprise that they get broken. Its a fundamental of contract law that for the contract to be workable (needing little enforcement and easy enforcement) it needs to be fair to both parties. In order to be fair it has to have been negotiated between both parties (or by representatives of both points of view). Also according to Tim Cook even whistleblowers would be fired: typical of many company CEO's; they all have dictator ambitions. Power corrupts is a truism in my experience. Best to just ignore them and get on with your job.

 

[waclark]

Most NDA's are not worth the paper they are written on. Tilted completely in the favor of the Company; so its no big surprise that they get broken. Its a fundamental of contract law that for the contract to be workable (needing little enforcement and easy enforcement) it needs to be fair to both parties. In order to be fair it has to have been negotiated between both parties (or by representatives of both points of view). Also according to Tim Cook even whistleblowers would be fired: typical of many company CEO's; they all have dictator ambitions. Power corrupts is a truism in my experience. Best to just ignore them and get on with your job.

I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure they can enforce an NDA that prohibits disclosure of product information in development. The deal was "negotiated" when you signed the document at the time of hiring.

Whistleblowers are a bit different than leaking product specs.