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Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

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Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#31

Post by jjtheblunt »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #19
geofft wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you're re-enacting https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/ aside, the comment was about the clause about making the world a better place, not the clause about fostering connections. (And even for that clause, if the extent of fostering is that they have a web browser based on Konqueror and a network stack based on BSD that lets you connect to Hacker News, it's not clear how much credit should be ascribed to A…

yep

downvotes for noticing the irony, and saying yep it was a joke?

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#32

Post by creatornator »

randombits0 wrote: post #3

Secrets imply deception.

If I don't publish my private SSH keys for all to see, am I being deceptive? No, I am protecting my interests. While I do prefer to know when Apple is acting in bad faith, this blanket statement is a weird one to make.

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#33

Post by tssva »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #11
tssva wrote: post #9

"We’ll continue to measure our contributions in the lives we change, the connections we foster, and the work we do to leave the world a better place." Maybe someone can leak the work they do to leave the world a better place because they have been real good at keeping that secret.

It would be funny if you'd typed that on an Apple product, to connect with others.

It was typed on a Lenovo Thinkpad.

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#35

Post by rowanG077 »

perl4ever wrote: post #29
rowanG077 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't. This is a very dangerous mentality at the root of a lot of evil done throughout the world.

If secrets don't imply deception, that that seems to me like saying knowledge is useless. All truths or falsehoods are within some context and cannot be divorced from context. What does this have to do with "danger" or "evil"?

No it's not. For example almost everyone has curtains. Do you think everyone that closes their curtains is deceiving someone? Of course not. There are many reasons to keep something private, one of them beeing deception. But it's far from the only one.

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#36

Post by hulitu »

CheezeIt wrote: post #30
tssva wrote: post #9

"We’ll continue to measure our contributions in the lives we change, the connections we foster, and the work we do to leave the world a better place." Maybe someone can leak the work they do to leave the world a better place because they have been real good at keeping that secret.

They make the world a better place by providing products and services for their customers.

So does also the eco toilet provider.

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#37

Post by _nalply »

mbfg wrote: post #13

i'm guessing the double "were were" in the second paragraph is one of many things in there by which they segregate the employees to determine who sent the email.

Yeah.

I remember reading somewhere text steganography being used not to encode a hidden message but to identify recipients who might leak the text. One way is to introduce small mistakes or differences like "were were" but differently for each recipient. One might get "were were" and someone else might get "the the", a third one might get a superfluous comma, etc., even harmless differences which are not mistakes are possible. One possible difference corresponds to a bit of information. If you have one hundred possible differences, you have one hundred bit of identificating information.

But I am sure that it is possible to work around this. Just don't give the exact memo text to the public. Paraphrase the text. I am afraid copy-edit or some intentional changes won't be enough if you don't paraphrase the text.

Dangerous and prone to mistakes but surely lucrative or satisfying for the leaker.

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#38

Post by _moof »

randombits0 wrote: post #3

Secrets imply deception.

Don't know if you're in the US but if so, I'll remind you that we have multiple constitutional amendments that protect your right to keep secrets. But if you find those amendments to be unethical, I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your next encounter with the police.

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#39

Post by knotAUsername »

_nalply wrote: post #37
mbfg wrote: post #13

i'm guessing the double "were were" in the second paragraph is one of many things in there by which they segregate the employees to determine who sent the email.

Yeah. I remember reading somewhere text steganography being used not to encode a hidden message but to identify recipients who might leak the text. One way is to introduce small mistakes or differences like "were were" but differently for each recipient. One might get "were were" and someone else might get "the the", a third one might get a superfluous comma, etc., even harmless differences which are not mistakes are…

Too dangerous. What if every department gets a different phrase?

Those people would probably do something like innocuously forward it to other departments. Reply to your version of the memo, but respond to the entire design and sales teams. Something like "What a great memo by Tim Cook!"

Re: Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong, according to leaked memo

#40

Post by _nalply »

knotAUsername wrote: post #39
_nalply wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I remember reading somewhere text steganography being used not to encode a hidden message but to identify recipients who might leak the text. One way is to introduce small mistakes or differences like "were were" but differently for each recipient. One might get "were were" and someone else might get "the the", a third one might get a superfluous comma, etc., even harmless differences which are not mistakes are…

Too dangerous. What if every department gets a different phrase? Those people would probably do something like innocuously forward it to other departments. Reply to your version of the memo, but respond to the entire design and sales teams. Something like "What a great memo by Tim Cook!"

Yeah.

I could imagine that steganography is only one part of the puzzle who is the impostor.

Perhaps Apple has a secret departement dedicated to identify leakers. If they found someone they strongly suspect they lay out a trap, for example by only sending him confidential information.

And, if someone innocuously forwards a memo, they have the electronic paper trail of that.

Spionage, counter-spionage and counter-counter-spionage. Apple is waging a war.

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