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In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

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Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#211

Post by gaius »

greedo wrote: post #73
alexandercrohde wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we not group whistleblowing, a usually-legal heroic action of reporting immoral/illegal behavior (to the extent that you can be awarded millions of dollars by the government for whistelblowing) with leaking trivial product details?

If you think the motives of whistleblowers are as pure as the driven snow, we'll just have to agree to disagree. #2 covers their actions, but not all whistleblowers are related to Mother Teresa.

not all whistleblowers are related to Mother Teresa.

MT was a fanatic and a fraud, so it’s not clear if you think that’s good or bad

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#212

Post by IBM »

pcwalton wrote: post #210
brianpan wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also go to prison for insider trading. Is this also too onerous for you? What reason is there for leaking information about the company you are currently working for?

I think the tone is heavy-handed. Leaking can happen accidentally--for example, by leaving an iPhone in a bar--and sending the message that this could result in criminal prosecution doesn't seem good for morale. Of course, every employee at Apple knows the culture of the company, so it's not like it should be any surprise.

The guy who left the iPhone 4 at a bar was never fired because it was an accident. In fact he stayed at Apple until 2017 [1].

[1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/graypowell/

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#213

Post by jogjayr »

rockinghigh wrote: post #87
foobaw wrote: post #36

This highly contrasts Netflix, which barely has any leaks, although discloses almost all their information to employees. Is it Apple's company size and culture that make leaks inevitable?

What would Netflix leak? Apple leaks are much more valuable because people are excited about how the hardware may evolve.

> What would Netflix leak?

Off the top of my head: viewership and engagement by content, new content deals currently being negotiated and their terms, how much they spend on infrastructure and what they spend it on. It's valuable info for investors and traders, agents, tech industry analysts.

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#214

Post by stouset »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #187
millstone wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TouchID and FaceID come to mind.

Both of those were on other phones before Apple did it.

And other people made smartphones before Apple did. The details and the secrecy thereof matter far, far more than the features themselves.

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#215

Post by michaelmrose »

nosequel wrote: post #137
rdlecler1 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d put Snowden in a different camp because he fell on the sword. Would Manning have leave if she thought she would be caught?

Wait what? Snowden never turned himself in. Snowden ran for the hills right into the arms of rival intelligence. Please don't confusing cowardly running with the act of committing suicide by sword to the stomach. Whether you agree with Snowden or not, he still committed a crime and broke a contract he signed and swore to. Manning at least spent her day in court. Yeah they are different, Snowden was a coward. If he tr…

You call someone who threw away their future,their peace of mind, and any hope of a normal life to expose wrongdoing a coward for not also throwing away his life.

" If he truly did it for the good of the world, he'd turn himself in because of the reward he has already gotten by sharing information he felt like the world needed."

This is offensively manipulative nonsense. Wanting to avoid being thrown in a hole and tortured is a normal human response and utterly orthogonal to whether his motives were pure or not.

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#216

Post by mombul »

ebullientocelot wrote: post #206
jlgaddis wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are media organizations like 9to5mac (mentioned in Apple's memo) paying Apple insiders for the information they provide? Personally, I wouldn't think that the leakers were getting paid. Even if they were, I imagine the amount that these particular online web sites are able to pay is very much -- especially when compared to the average Apple employee's salary. This makes me think that money isn't the primary motivatin…

I agree that money probably isn't the thing. I would imagine the average Apple engineer would realize that the payment for leaking would have to be massive to offset the damage to career / loss of earnings from the damned good job they already have. Maybe it's the sense of getting away with something? Like a super lame, mundane version of Thomas Crown--life is going well in pretty much every category so raise a littl…

One can be smart enough to work at Apple and also be dumb in a lot of ways. It's easy being manipulated ("nobody will know it was from you! you're a confidential source"), and it's definitely easy to think of yourself above all laws, or at least too smart to ever get caught.

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#217

Post by lifeformed »

walrus01 wrote: post #165
jlgaddis wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I was reading the memo in TFA, I thought "I wonder if this memo has slight differences in it based upon who is viewing it". Specifically, I noted one place where I thought a comma should normally have been. Perhaps it's "paranoia", but it seemed like that is one possible "variation" that could have been used. I don't know how many Apple employees would view this memo (it seems unlikely that all ~135,000 would) but…

> As I was reading the memo in TFA, I thought "I wonder if this memo has slight differences in it based upon who is viewing it". > Specifically, I noted one place where I thought a comma should normally have been. Perhaps it's "paranoia", but it seemed like that is one possible "variation" that could have been used. This is one of the methods taught in "counterintelligence 101" type classes at intel agencies. Create…

If people are aware of this, what if someone finds the variations, and modifies the document and then leaks it, framing someone else for the leak?

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#218

Post by walrus01 »

lifeformed wrote: post #217
walrus01 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As I was reading the memo in TFA, I thought "I wonder if this memo has slight differences in it based upon who is viewing it". > Specifically, I noted one place where I thought a comma should normally have been. Perhaps it's "paranoia", but it seemed like that is one possible "variation" that could have been used. This is one of the methods taught in "counterintelligence 101" type classes at intel agencies. Create…

If people are aware of this, what if someone finds the variations, and modifies the document and then leaks it, framing someone else for the leak?

You would have to be in possession of the index of which unique modification correlates with which person or group it was distributed to, which is usually knowledge only held by the creators of the salted documents.

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#219

Post by chongli »

IBM wrote: post #30
yodon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I’ve never understood what the employee gets out of it The intelligence services have done a great deal of research into the persona of the press leaker/Wikileaks leaker (as distinct from the more traditional espionage leaker). A common trait is for the press leaker to be either highly over-qualified for their job or believe themselves to be over-qualified for their job. The belief coming out of that research is a s…

I can come up with plausible reasons for why intelligence leakers do what they do (sense of duty, serving public interest, etc). I can't come up with any for an Apple employee. The leaks an Apple employee makes is about inconsequential stuff like what features the next iPhone will have. It's not even in the same ballpark as someone who is leaking something illegal going on at the company or someone at Facebook leakin…

Perhaps Apple employees get tired of not being able to talk about what they do at work in social settings. Leaking provides an outlet so that their friends and family might have an idea of what they're up to. It's still sort of an ego thing, but having to hold your tongue at parties can get really exhausting.

Re: In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information

#220

Post by mistercleo »

gaius wrote: post #211
greedo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think the motives of whistleblowers are as pure as the driven snow, we'll just have to agree to disagree. #2 covers their actions, but not all whistleblowers are related to Mother Teresa.

not all whistleblowers are related to Mother Teresa. MT was a fanatic and a fraud, so it’s not clear if you think that’s good or bad

It doesn’t really matter much to the point, does it?

Personally, I’d be interested if someone leaked the CIA’s research into online trolls. Something tells me you wouldn’t consider that person a saint ;)

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