Apple has told its employees that last year they discovered 29 leakers, of whom 12 were arrested. He also reminded them that "these people not only lose their job, they can also find extreme difficulties finding a job elsewhere".
The Cupertino want to end the leaks, and as reported by Bloomberg, they do with an internal memo in which they are warned of possible legal actions and criminal charges to those who continue to leak information about the future plans of the company. It is clear that the purpose is to intimidate them by reminding them of the consequences that their actions could have.
In recent years, leaks about future plans and devices not yet presented have become the order of the day, turning some of the filterings into authentic rockstars. Apple has suffered from data on how their next iPhone will be related to movements such as the abandonment of Intel processors.
The concern with this type of leaks is that they can negatively affect the sales of the devices that are currently on the market. That the information on future characteristics comes to light also helps the competition to react, which in turn directly affects the sales of the next devices when some of their novelties have been countered.
The Apple memo also mentions the specific case of an employee who leaked details of an internal meeting that talked about the company's software roadmap, and which they managed to find quickly even though hundreds of engineers had received the information. Apparently, the filter had only talked about it with a journalist without knowing that he was going to publish it, a hint to be careful with the press.
Apple also assures employees that they are increasingly catching the leaks, whether employees, contractors or suppliers. He also reminds them that these leaks spoil the work and time of people who have made an effort to create products and that they want to have the opportunity to explain to consumers every product instead of letting "other people" do it. A poor mode.
Apple gets especially hard
Apple is not the only company that is trying to combat these internal leaks. Companies like Google have also fired employees when they find that they have leaked something, and even others like Facebook monitor their employees to try to dissuade them. But we have rarely seen such harsh measures as threatening arrests and legal actions.
Before reaching this point, according to Bloomberg, Apple had already held confidential meetings with its employees to try to convince them to stop filtering their plans. However, that meeting did not achieve the desired results, and after it came to light data from devices such as the iPhone X, the new Apple TV or the latest model of Apple Watch with LTE. Therefore, before this situation, it seems that they have decided to take more extreme measures.
Now we just have to wait for the next few months to see if these new threats take effect or continue leaks on the next devices. It will also be interesting to see, in the case of functioning in some way, if the rest of the technology companies imitate the overwhelming position of the Cupertino people.