Not defending the employee, who has clearly made a mistake, but to fire someone who may potentially be productive for a mistake they didn't directly make is a bit harsh. I would never fire someone for a faux pas - that's the sort of action that makes all your employees fearful, anxious and eventually, unproductive.
He wasn’t fired because the video ended up online. He was fired because he let her film the video. That was a direct action. As an outsider, I agree that this level of secrecy seems over the top. However, that is what the employees accept when they join, so it’s their obligation to hold up their end of the bargain.
I get that, but in that case you could lay the blame with apple's security policy. Why did they allow a non employee in with a smartphone and tempt fate?!
I don't think Apple engaging in TSA-type security and patting down everyone to make sure they aren't carrying a cell phone is a good alternative.
And if you're going to say that they wouldn't enforce the ban, just have a policy, then I'll ask why that policy would work when the existing one didn't.
To clarify, while the video was shot a month ago, it wasn't edited and published until after the keynote, and after several other YouTubers had published hands on reviews of the device.
Weren't those hands on reviews done at the release presentation? Wasn't the review embargo still in place when she released the video?
I don't remember seeing any 'normal' reviews released at this time, the type where the reviewers have full access to the device for testing in their own locations.
I find Apple's extreme secrecy off-putting. I wouldn't want to work at a place where there is such limitations about what you can discuss with your coworkers, let alone your friends and family. But that's how things work at Apple. It's unbelievable that an Apple employee would let their child have a hands-on with an unreleased product and film it. If he didn't realize that is a fireable offense, well, that in itself is a fireable offense.
Apple is its own film studio, creating and telling stories about itself. And people camp out to be the first in line to experience the next episode. No spoilers, please.
Yes, my current company deals with HIPAA data. It's not a medical company but we do store and process customer data that needs to be HIPAA compliant. I can still tell my friends and family what I work on.
Can you film secret company data and put it on YouTube though? I seriously doubt he would have been fired if he simply told his friends and family that he was working on the radio for the next iPhone.
This guy would have been fine if he told his family he was working on payment software for the next iPhone. What he did though was the equivalent of you showing your family HIPAA records and pointing out private medical information about someone else.
Are you serious? She brought her DSLR onto the campus and practically interviewed her dad. My guess is that he knew 100% what she was doing, thought that telling her “no” would have caused a bigger issue than “letting it be”...and was wrong.
So, other Apple employees are getting fired too, right? I mean, if filming is not allowed, how did she get a camera in there in the first place? People other than her father didn't do their job, clearly, and if a kid can sneak a digital device into Apple into a location that is apparently intended to be highly secure, then I'm forced to question their sincerity in how much emphasis they put on security.
> I mean, if filming is not allowed, how did she get a camera in there in the first place?
You're not allowed to stab people in the supermarket I frequent, and yet there's nobody standing at the door frisking all the customers.
> People other than her father didn't do their job, clearly, and if a kid can sneak a digital device into Apple into a location that is apparently intended to be highly secure, then I'm forced to question their sincerity in how much emphasis they put on security.
They probably evaluated the situation and decided that rather than turn their facility in a well-defended fortress, they would simply make it clear to their employees what isn't allowed and expect them to do the right thing most of the time, and accept that sometimes the rules will get broken. That this story counts as news proves that their approach works very well most of the time.
Besides, these iPhones have cameras, if you can get on campus and get your hands on two of them, you could easily create a video and upload it, without ever bringing your own camera.
> You're not allowed to stab people in the supermarket I frequent, and yet there's nobody standing at the door frisking all the customers.
Because stabbings aren't expected there, but shop lifting is, which is why they actively work to prevent that via different methods such as mirrors and cameras.
The same thing applies here.
> they would simply make it clear to their employees what isn't allowed and expect them to do the right thing most of the time
Well, clearly this isn't what happened. After all, the filming didn't get him fired. Rather, it was the posting of the video after review copies had been sent out. He probably thought it was fine.
So clearly Apple's approach isn't working.
> That this story counts as news proves that their approach works very well most of the time.
Let's apply that same standard to something like Equifax.
> After all, the filming didn't get him fired. Rather, it was the posting of the video after review copies had been sent out.
Likely they did fire him for just the act of (allowing) filming, but didn't know about the video until it was posted.
> He probably thought it was fine.
I sincerely doubt that. Apple employees have it drilled into their heads that this sort of thing is absolutely not ok, and have signed legal agreements to that effect.
Hell, a friend of mine who often has very-pre-release versions of iOS on his phone at times doesn't even allow anyone else to touch his phone, based on the rules that have been laid out for him by Apple. He doesn't even let other Apple employees touch his phone unless they're also internally cleared to see what's in those pre-releases.
> Sorry, but Apple went overboard here.
They went overboard by... enforcing the terms of their employment agreement? No, they were perfectly justified here.
Yeah, so everyone that saw this is getting fired as well, right? And Apple is going to conduct an investigation into why their security was broken by a teenager in plain sight. I mean, that's what happened. They failed at securing their own data.
If we assume for the sake of argument that the NDA explicitly states you will be fired for violations, Apple effectively has no choice: uphold their end of the agreement and fire the engineer or avoid potentially bad PR while also signaling to the rest of the engineers that the NDA means jack squat.
Is it harsh, yes. But that was the agreement, and both side were very aware of it.
>Apple effectively has no choice: uphold their end of the agreement and fire the engineer or avoid potentially bad PR while also signaling to the rest of the engineers that the NDA means jack squat.
Well, since it's the daughter that announced the firing while crying, Apple did very much had a choice: to fire him with a special side deal (compensation) and have him sign to not disclose it or have his family go to social media about it.
Why would anyone pay someone who literally just violated their trust to keep quiet, and for what purpose? The publicity of it plays to Apples favor internally for a long time, and the external impacts are negligible at worst with a one-and-done news cycle.
I doubt they care about publicity or karma. They care a great deal about secrecy, and firing this person sends a clear message to everyone else at the company that violating secrecy has major consequences.
I think would be very interesting to see what they would do if it WAS an 8 to 12-year-old.
In this case it’s dead clear that the father violated policy. I mean he was right there showing it to her while she was holding a big camera.
The daughter was more than old enough to know what might happen. It seems odd to think that someone who blogs on YouTube with professional equipment wouldn’t know about Apple’s secrecy if their parent worked there. I figured she must’ve been told that certain things couldn’t be discussed before, or had to be kept secret.
Either way neither of them is blatantly innocent.
Where as if a young kid took a video and posted it while the father was asleep or something like that it would be a much more interesting case. Would Apple actually fine with him in that case?
I think they probably would but I could see a debate. As soon as I saw this video last week it was dead clear what was going to happen next.
The engineer who left a pre-release iPhone 4 in a bar wasn't fired. The cases where they have fired employees for leaks have all involved deliberate action on the part of the employee.
The problem unfortunately is you give leeway to one person, even as a 8-12 years old, you never know what will happen next. It's not about NDAs really rather a simple ethical boundary - if you feel it is wrong and needs clarification, then don't do it. Check with legal and all and see if it's fine.
> how stupid must an executive be to do such a thing? -- the firing I mean.
I disagree. If he wasn't fired it sends a signal to other employees that certain leaks are ok, and once that seeps in to Apple culture, it will be difficult to stem the tide of leaks.
By firing the employee Apple is also sending a message to future and current employees that they are serious about secrecy and leaks, and you'll lose your job if you mess up.
It's saying our boundaries are clear, and we take them seriously. Do not cross them or there will be consequences.
Employees will be more careful because of this, and that will help reduce leaks in the future.
I was confused because I just presumed this was some guerilla marketing by Apple and a way to virally promote the phone.
I just didn't think that the daughter could get away with filming it otherwise.
No one who works at Apple would possibly think this was a good idea. They know they’ll get fired. Unless it’s intentional. Sort of like when they “leak” things to the press.
Perhaps something to build some buzz against the ‘Apple is doomed and will only make 57 phones by Christmas!’ stories.
Nope, just an incredibly poor decision. Unless he wanted to get fired.
It’s widely thought that a number of things come directly from Apple. Leaks that point out/say other negative leaks are true often seem to be from Apple. A sort of unofficial official statement.
It’s also thought that they leak things sometimes so people will have some time to get used to the information before it’s officially announced. That may have been the case with the leaks about headphone removal on the iPhone 7 months ahead of the device’s announcement. That way when the time came the stories were about the headphone removal but also other things. If it hadn’t already been discussed a lot there’s a decent chance it would’ve ONLY been about the headphone removal.
But those kinds of leaks tend to be to reporters or bloggers that Apple is familiar with.
As far as I know they’ve never actually done any “geurrila“ style stuff.
Really?? This just seems overkill. It was clearly not a willful violation. I hate to see someone lose their job, especially because of their kids. Come on Apple...
You aren't allowed film in the location they filmed, the filming took place before the phone even shipped to carriers, and they released the film before the ship date. And to top it off, there's no way to claim after viewing the video that the father had no awareness; it was practically an interview.
Should Apple have fired him? I don't know. Was it a willful violation? Absolutely it was.
> In a tearful video, Peterson explains her father violated an Apple company rule by allowing her to film the unreleased handset at Apple’s campus.
The key word here is "unreleased".
Even if she released the video after the keynote, it was filmed in Apple's Labs / Offices a month before, when the new iphone was in an unreleased state. Pretty sure their NDA forbids such things for obvious reasons. Design leaks (from videos) could potential cost companies like Apple MILLIONS in lost revenue.
NDAs are there for a reason. I see nothing wrong with what Apple did here.
Agreed, but with that level of access, one cannot afford to be careless. And Apple could care less whether it was malicious, or careless or plain stupid.
The intent doesn't change the consequences for Apple.
I don't feel bad for anyone, here. The father was flat-out stupid: there's no excuse for him not knowing Apple's policies around this sort of thing. The daughter should know better than to even take a video of an unreleased Apple product while in the office, let alone release it. These people are just incredibly foolish, and firing the guy is entirely justified. They're lucky Apple isn't suing the daughter for what I can only assume is a breach of the NDA she presumably signed before being let into the office.
I personally would not work for a company that has such high requirements for strict secrecy that Apple does, but this guy did, and assuredly knew that going in.
Suing the daughter? I think many people will not think bad for the engineer getting fired, but I doubt suing the daughter would be worth the damage in reputation such a lawsuit would cost.
I don’t know how to feel on this one. Usually I agree but this is Apple and he’s an employee. If he was able to get an iPhone there’s no way he doesn’t know what the rules are. There’s no way he doesn’t know that Apple is extremely strict about security. He’s probably been through a couple of the “we are tightening down on leaks” things over the last year or two. If he’s been there long enough he probably remembers the big mess about the employee who lost their iPhone four before it was released.
Heck we got massive firmware leaks a month or two ago, he had to of known about that and how mad people were.
I don’t know how Sony, or Samsung, or Microsoft, or other companies handle this kind of stuff. But Apple is well known for taking an extremely strong stance.
Part of me thinks the daughter should’ve known better, it’s not like she’s a 12-year-old. If this was filmed a month before it was posted then she had plenty of time to think about it. It’s not like she live streamed it in then realized later that it was a mistake.
I want to think the employee just had a lapse in judgment and was just trying to have fun with/impress his daughter. I hope that’s all it was.
It’s kind of unfortunate but it was 100% predictable what would happen the instant this went online.
> Part of me thinks the daughter should’ve known better, it’s not like she’s a 12-year-old.
Sure, but the primary cause of the leak was the dad allowing her to film it at all. Based on common sense alone (aside from internal training/warnings/etc that Apple employees must go through to ge their hands on pre-release hardware), in the presence of any camera he either should not have pulled out the phone, or told his daughter to put her phone/camera away before pulling it out.
He was certainly in the wrong. I was just thinking the daughter was old enough to know that he was in the wrong and that she shouldn’t have participated.
I don't think this situation is worth much attention, honestly, but that said I do find it very easy to imagine being a person who doesn't understand how much of a breach such a video might be. I would be extremely cautious, because I'm a cautious person and because I know Apple is very secretive. And I'm a 'techie'
But most people are not like me. And even imagining a twenty-something version of me I can imagine doing something like this without much thought.
One thing that struck me when watching the video - it's not just the father interacting with the camera, it's other Apple employees who very clearly know that they're being filmed. I wonder how come none of the employees said anything?
When I visited the R&D center of a German car manufacturer, we were checked at reception and needed special permission to carry the devices we had with us for the presentation we were there for. If the software lead (the host) hadn't cleared the way and taken responsibility, we would have needed to leave everything at reception like most visitors. We were only allowed to take in one laptop.
The surprise here is that the daughter was allowed to take her device into the development office. I suppose the father did the same as our host years ago by signing off and taking on liability for anything that might happen. In that sense, and I don't want to sound harsh, he unfortunately had a momentarily lapse of judgement and kinda failed his father and employee duties. Hard to balance them at the same time, but maybe certain Apple employees need to operate like, you know, Air Force R&D personnel. You go to work, but you never bring home or talk about work.
I thought the same and then saw her reflection in one of the shots from the selfie camera and she was filming with a big DSLR with an external mic attached to it. Surprised no one questioned that..
I work in film distribution, and we have similar rules as well for unreleased movies. The important thing is that this is really nothing personal - for all intents and purposes the firing is a clear and automatic decision by a HR robot. The question is, who on the iPhone team should have stood up and advocated having him stay? Presumably all the other people on the team have families as well, and they all went to great lengths to make sure this didn’t happen with their pieces. If this happened to someone on my team I would wish them well and make introductions as much as possible, but it would be very unfair to the rest of the team to try to hold on to them.
That company is incredibly stupid in how they treat their people. Dad gave a tour and showed the product on the video to her daughter? JAIL TIME, mofo. JAIL! FFS, they could've turned this into their own family-friendly image or whatever, yet they opted to turn it into a shitfest.
When I saw that video I assumed it Apple provided them permission to publish since of course without there permission that would be an immediate fireable offense plus any potential damages. Since it sounds like Apple did not provide permission I have no idea what he was thinking, since I don't blame the girl, as its his responsibility not to share anything especially when he knows she is recording it and shares things on her YouTube channel. I feel like there has to be more to this since since had to know he would be fired. Maybe he knew he was going to be let go over something else and decided to do this so he could get fired and gained sympathy. Who knows. Very odd.
Mistakes happen. Especially with things one has little control over. Where is the benevolence and greatness we are striving for and searching in leaders?
There are many ways to solve this with everybody saving face from my point of view.
> Especially with things one has little control over.
He chose to pull out a pre-relase phone (that he was under strict orders to keep secret) in front of his vlogging daughter's DSLR camera while she was filming. Nothing in that scenario was out of his control.
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 131 ms ] threadI don't think Apple engaging in TSA-type security and patting down everyone to make sure they aren't carrying a cell phone is a good alternative.
And if you're going to say that they wouldn't enforce the ban, just have a policy, then I'll ask why that policy would work when the existing one didn't.
This person clearly hadn’t been given permission.
I don’t see how he couldn’t know this would happen, I wonder why he did it.
I don't remember seeing any 'normal' reviews released at this time, the type where the reviewers have full access to the device for testing in their own locations.
Even if it's "justified" by 2000 NDAs, no way this is gonna bring good publicity and/or karma to a company.
At least it's a teenager -- if it was like a 8-12 year old kid playing with iPhone X everybody would be very agree at Apple for firing the father.
Clearly, it's lacking in serious ways.
You're not allowed to stab people in the supermarket I frequent, and yet there's nobody standing at the door frisking all the customers.
> People other than her father didn't do their job, clearly, and if a kid can sneak a digital device into Apple into a location that is apparently intended to be highly secure, then I'm forced to question their sincerity in how much emphasis they put on security.
They probably evaluated the situation and decided that rather than turn their facility in a well-defended fortress, they would simply make it clear to their employees what isn't allowed and expect them to do the right thing most of the time, and accept that sometimes the rules will get broken. That this story counts as news proves that their approach works very well most of the time.
Besides, these iPhones have cameras, if you can get on campus and get your hands on two of them, you could easily create a video and upload it, without ever bringing your own camera.
Because stabbings aren't expected there, but shop lifting is, which is why they actively work to prevent that via different methods such as mirrors and cameras.
The same thing applies here.
> they would simply make it clear to their employees what isn't allowed and expect them to do the right thing most of the time
Well, clearly this isn't what happened. After all, the filming didn't get him fired. Rather, it was the posting of the video after review copies had been sent out. He probably thought it was fine.
So clearly Apple's approach isn't working.
> That this story counts as news proves that their approach works very well most of the time.
Let's apply that same standard to something like Equifax.
Sorry, but Apple went overboard here.
Likely they did fire him for just the act of (allowing) filming, but didn't know about the video until it was posted.
> He probably thought it was fine.
I sincerely doubt that. Apple employees have it drilled into their heads that this sort of thing is absolutely not ok, and have signed legal agreements to that effect.
Hell, a friend of mine who often has very-pre-release versions of iOS on his phone at times doesn't even allow anyone else to touch his phone, based on the rules that have been laid out for him by Apple. He doesn't even let other Apple employees touch his phone unless they're also internally cleared to see what's in those pre-releases.
> Sorry, but Apple went overboard here.
They went overboard by... enforcing the terms of their employment agreement? No, they were perfectly justified here.
Watch the video.
Her dad basically toured her around at the Apple Campus. It wasn't a simple leak footage.
https://youtu.be/RBeD8E2xxck?t=2m10s
Is it harsh, yes. But that was the agreement, and both side were very aware of it.
Well, since it's the daughter that announced the firing while crying, Apple did very much had a choice: to fire him with a special side deal (compensation) and have him sign to not disclose it or have his family go to social media about it.
In this case it’s dead clear that the father violated policy. I mean he was right there showing it to her while she was holding a big camera.
The daughter was more than old enough to know what might happen. It seems odd to think that someone who blogs on YouTube with professional equipment wouldn’t know about Apple’s secrecy if their parent worked there. I figured she must’ve been told that certain things couldn’t be discussed before, or had to be kept secret.
Either way neither of them is blatantly innocent.
Where as if a young kid took a video and posted it while the father was asleep or something like that it would be a much more interesting case. Would Apple actually fine with him in that case?
I think they probably would but I could see a debate. As soon as I saw this video last week it was dead clear what was going to happen next.
I disagree. If he wasn't fired it sends a signal to other employees that certain leaks are ok, and once that seeps in to Apple culture, it will be difficult to stem the tide of leaks.
By firing the employee Apple is also sending a message to future and current employees that they are serious about secrecy and leaks, and you'll lose your job if you mess up.
It's saying our boundaries are clear, and we take them seriously. Do not cross them or there will be consequences.
Employees will be more careful because of this, and that will help reduce leaks in the future.
No one who works at Apple would possibly think this was a good idea. They know they’ll get fired. Unless it’s intentional. Sort of like when they “leak” things to the press.
Perhaps something to build some buzz against the ‘Apple is doomed and will only make 57 phones by Christmas!’ stories.
Nope, just an incredibly poor decision. Unless he wanted to get fired.
It’s also thought that they leak things sometimes so people will have some time to get used to the information before it’s officially announced. That may have been the case with the leaks about headphone removal on the iPhone 7 months ahead of the device’s announcement. That way when the time came the stories were about the headphone removal but also other things. If it hadn’t already been discussed a lot there’s a decent chance it would’ve ONLY been about the headphone removal.
But those kinds of leaks tend to be to reporters or bloggers that Apple is familiar with.
As far as I know they’ve never actually done any “geurrila“ style stuff.
Her dad basically toured her around at the Apple Campus. It wasn't a simple leak footage.
https://youtu.be/RBeD8E2xxck?t=2m10s
You aren't allowed film in the location they filmed, the filming took place before the phone even shipped to carriers, and they released the film before the ship date. And to top it off, there's no way to claim after viewing the video that the father had no awareness; it was practically an interview.
Should Apple have fired him? I don't know. Was it a willful violation? Absolutely it was.
Are you sure? Because they clearly had no issue allowing the filming to take place.
The key word here is "unreleased".
Even if she released the video after the keynote, it was filmed in Apple's Labs / Offices a month before, when the new iphone was in an unreleased state. Pretty sure their NDA forbids such things for obvious reasons. Design leaks (from videos) could potential cost companies like Apple MILLIONS in lost revenue.
NDAs are there for a reason. I see nothing wrong with what Apple did here.
The intent doesn't change the consequences for Apple.
I personally would not work for a company that has such high requirements for strict secrecy that Apple does, but this guy did, and assuredly knew that going in.
Heck we got massive firmware leaks a month or two ago, he had to of known about that and how mad people were.
I don’t know how Sony, or Samsung, or Microsoft, or other companies handle this kind of stuff. But Apple is well known for taking an extremely strong stance.
Part of me thinks the daughter should’ve known better, it’s not like she’s a 12-year-old. If this was filmed a month before it was posted then she had plenty of time to think about it. It’s not like she live streamed it in then realized later that it was a mistake.
I want to think the employee just had a lapse in judgment and was just trying to have fun with/impress his daughter. I hope that’s all it was.
It’s kind of unfortunate but it was 100% predictable what would happen the instant this went online.
Sure, but the primary cause of the leak was the dad allowing her to film it at all. Based on common sense alone (aside from internal training/warnings/etc that Apple employees must go through to ge their hands on pre-release hardware), in the presence of any camera he either should not have pulled out the phone, or told his daughter to put her phone/camera away before pulling it out.
But most people are not like me. And even imagining a twenty-something version of me I can imagine doing something like this without much thought.
One thing that struck me when watching the video - it's not just the father interacting with the camera, it's other Apple employees who very clearly know that they're being filmed. I wonder how come none of the employees said anything?
It's harsh but if you work at Apple you should know they take a no nonsense approach to pre-launch secrecy.
The surprise here is that the daughter was allowed to take her device into the development office. I suppose the father did the same as our host years ago by signing off and taking on liability for anything that might happen. In that sense, and I don't want to sound harsh, he unfortunately had a momentarily lapse of judgement and kinda failed his father and employee duties. Hard to balance them at the same time, but maybe certain Apple employees need to operate like, you know, Air Force R&D personnel. You go to work, but you never bring home or talk about work.
source: have visited the same cafe with friends working at apple
Having worked for Apple for 4 years this is just plain stupidity from the fathers side, allowing his daughter to film.
What I was more surprised about was how much slack people seem to give the daughter, she’s not 12, she’s graduated from college and married
There are many ways to solve this with everybody saving face from my point of view.
He chose to pull out a pre-relase phone (that he was under strict orders to keep secret) in front of his vlogging daughter's DSLR camera while she was filming. Nothing in that scenario was out of his control.