Apple CEO Tim Cook in Leaked Memo: 'We Are Doing Everything in Our Power' To Identify Leakers (macrumors.com) 66
Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned employees about leaking company information. Cook's memo: Dear Team,
It was great to connect with you at the global employee meeting on Friday. There was much to celebrate, from our remarkable new product line-up to our values driven work around climate change, racial equity, and privacy. It was a good opportunity to reflect on our many accomplishments and to have a discussion about what's been on your mind.
I'm writing today because I've heard from so many of you were incredibly frustrated to see the contents of the meeting leak to reporters. This comes after a product launch in which most of the details of our announcements were also leaked to the press.
I want you to know that I share your frustration. These opportunities to connect as a team are really important. But they only work if we can trust that the content will stay within Apple. I want to reassure you that we are doing everything in our power to identify those who leaked. As you know, we do not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it's product IP or the details of a confidential meeting. We know that the leakers constitute a small number of people. We also know that people who leak confidential information do not belong here.
As we look forward, I want to thank you for all you've done to make our products a reality and all you will do to get them into customers' hands. Yesterday we released iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, and Friday marks the moment when we share some of our incredible new products with the world. There's nothing better than that. 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.
It was great to connect with you at the global employee meeting on Friday. There was much to celebrate, from our remarkable new product line-up to our values driven work around climate change, racial equity, and privacy. It was a good opportunity to reflect on our many accomplishments and to have a discussion about what's been on your mind.
I'm writing today because I've heard from so many of you were incredibly frustrated to see the contents of the meeting leak to reporters. This comes after a product launch in which most of the details of our announcements were also leaked to the press.
I want you to know that I share your frustration. These opportunities to connect as a team are really important. But they only work if we can trust that the content will stay within Apple. I want to reassure you that we are doing everything in our power to identify those who leaked. As you know, we do not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it's product IP or the details of a confidential meeting. We know that the leakers constitute a small number of people. We also know that people who leak confidential information do not belong here.
As we look forward, I want to thank you for all you've done to make our products a reality and all you will do to get them into customers' hands. Yesterday we released iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, and Friday marks the moment when we share some of our incredible new products with the world. There's nothing better than that. 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.
So who leaked that memo? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wouldn't "doing everything in their power" include putting unique wording in each person's copy of the memo?
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Apple has historically done exactly what Mononymous suggested, so if I worked at Apple, I'd assume that they did the same with this email. But I actually can't tell if you're serious or not, because the measures you suggest sound completely implausible. Also, why in the world would Apple work with anyone else to build these kinds of tools? Apple doesn't want these kinds of tools on their platforms, they want to be the only ones who have access to this data.
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Print out the memo offsite. Handle printed memo with gloves and scan it using non-adobe scanning software via linux based OS. Mail it to reporter/journalist. Takes little to no time to do any of this and it can't be traced.
I'm sure they've been identified and fired already (Score:2)
I'm writing today because I've heard from so many of you were incredibly frustrated to see the contents of the meeting leak to reporters.
It's likely multiple variations of the email were sent out, with minor changes to each one.
The person who received this email had their email modified from the original, which probably didn't have the grammar error:
I'm writing today because I've heard from so many of you who were incredibly frustrated...
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Or they were smart enough to be the ones that changed a few tidbits here and there themselves before releasing the memo to thwart such efforts...
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Simple : get 3 versionsof the memo.
Diff them.
Mix the copies.
Or even more simple : leak the version from somebody else.
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The Apple apologists will say you have to opt-in...
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I'm sure it generates such a WONDERFUL work environment and results in happy, loyal workers!
Apple has always been secretive and paranoid.
They are also the world's most valuable company, so their Gestapo tactics don't appear to be hurting them.
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The 3rd Reich had quite a following as well. There are mindless followers everywhere. :)
YOU were the one who brought up Gestapo. Just trying to add to your post.
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their Gestapo tactics
"Ve haf vays of making you code!"
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Seems pretty simple. Apple asks you not pass along internal information. If you don't agree then you don't have to work there.
Re:Boo freakin' hoo (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to defend Apple, but not divulging internal company documents, and being subject to termination and perhaps even getting sued for it is SOP. Heck, when I was a friggin' delivery driver before I got my degree, we had a guy abscond with the client list and take it to another company. I don't think he got sued but it was obviously a "last day" move. After that I have no idea what happened to him, but I have a feeling it wasn't really all that great at the new company for him. After all, "he did it to them, he'd do it to us."
So anyway, it's not like they're selling missile plans to the USSR, but it's also not something you do if you want to sleep well and continue your career.
Apple isn't doing anything any other normal company would do in this situation, and I don't blame them one bit.
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It is pretty funny. You get people here who think employees using their own cell phone at work is a heinous breach of security but will turn around and criticize Apple for getting irked when people post their unreleased product designs on the Internet.
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>> I never reported it. :)
until today
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I once worked for a big internet company - but it was at the end of it's natural life, and the internal culture was pretty toxic. It was no longer anything even approaching a meritocracy, so no matter how good your ideas were, it didn't matter - the sociopaths always won, and always got the glory of having the idea that would save the world, and somehow never be held to account for their mistakes.
At the time, the CEO made very similar statements - it's about all they can do. But if people feel the need to l
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It would seem they're not really that loyal.... so nothing of value was lost?
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I don't work at Apple, or anywhere where anyone would gain anything from leaking internal information, but I do believe that it can be disheartening to know that you work with somebody who leaks information about the cool new stuff you're working on. So I guess this cuts both ways. In some way, it sucks that Apple is going after its own employees. But in another way, I think a lot of Apple's employees are probably i
Wow, oh wow (Score:4, Insightful)
I have an apple device, don't get me wrong, and it works, so thanks Apple, good job, well done, thanks again
But a better world means something completely different entirely.
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They really think devices for people leave a better world..
In poor countries, cell phone adoption is strongly correlated with broad increases in prosperity.
Rural incomes rise, literacy increases, infant mortality falls.
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Re:Wow, oh wow (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you trying to argue that correlation is causation?
Prosperity follows cell phone adoption. So cell phones appear to cause prosperity more than the other way around.
Some countries with autocratic regimes that banned or restricted cell phones experienced significant economic growth when policies were liberalized.
There are obvious mechanisms for the causation. Farmers can see crop prices online, chose what to plant more wisely, and demand better prices from wholesalers. Families can access health information. Since most online information is textual, there are obvious benefits to literacy, so families send their kids to school.
Cell Phones Linked to Literacy, Prosperity [indiatoday.in]
How the Smartphone has Impacted Economic Development [scranton.edu]
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Are you trying to argue that correlation is causation?
Causation may not always be behind correlation, but there is always correlation where there is causation. While the aphorism you state is true, using it to discount correlation as evidence is just as fallacious as assuming that correlation = causation.
ShanghaiBill was pretty informal in his argument, but I don't think it's a reasonable interpretation to assume he conflated correlation and causation. He merely pointed out the correlation and then followed up with an explanation for a causative link. Each sta
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You really think having local maps and your position on them instantly available does not make a better world.
You really think being able to communicate with pretty much any person from anywhere does not make a better world.
You really think being able to track and trace lost items whether behind your bed or on the other side of town does not make a better world.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] " Obscurantism - (2) deliberate obscurity—a recondite literary or artistic style, characterized by deli
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You really think having local maps and your position on them instantly available does not make a better world.
No, not really I used to use a thing called a paper map. It was quite easy, and I learned to find my way round better because I HAD to remember. This is not a significant level of better. My 16 year old daughter recently told she didn't know where our city was on a map, I didn't even suspect some people didn't know that, but if every direction you get is turn left, then turn right why would ever need to know.
You really think being able to communicate with pretty much any person from anywhere does not make a better world.
Look at Facebook, Twitter, etc, people are now wasting their lives on meaningless nonsense, they are
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I believe in paper maps, and I just updated the Road Atlas in my van to a 2021 publication about a month ago. But I also worked for a route planning startup in 1981, started using road trip planning software on a laptop in 1991, and bought my first GPS-based in-car navigation system (Garmin StreetPilot) around 2002. My mobile phone has Waze, Apple Maps, and maps.me (with downloaded maps) that I use from time to time. The long distance routes I get from software tend to be better than the ones I planned m
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I don't totally disagree with you, but just for the sake of argument and alternative interpretations...
We now have local maps and our position on them instantly available - and many people have completely lost the ability to navigate when that battery dies, or even to read maps (instead, they depend on maps to read to them!).
We have the ability to communicate on a global scale - enabling the rapid spread of violent ideologies and extremism, and the fast spread of outright lies that have been the instigation
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They really think devices for people leave a better world.
See if this sounds familiar. 2019 will be the year of desktop Linux. Things that the majority can use are very empowering. Things that the majority can not spend most of their time wishing people would start using them, and wondering why not them.
That's pretty much pure distillated BS. (Score:2)
>> "There was much to celebrate, from our remarkable new product line-up to our values driven work around climate change, racial equity, and privacy."
That's pretty much pure distillated BS.
They have no new product line, iphone is pretty much the same as last year.
They don't care about the environment and climate change because tey block repair.
Also they just stomp on privacy, and give everything of our data to the spy agencies.
Probably "race equity", whatever that means, is similarly handed.
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Careful what you paste (Score:5, Informative)
I'd be careful about wholesale copy+paste of any email. People who they think are leaking they add to a different BCC list than everyone else. And sometimes it's multiple BCC lists. Small difference in the email indicate which BCC list leaked. Like changing "It was great to connect with you" to "I want you to know it was great to connect with you" and "I felt that it was great to connect with you". And so on. Once they see the copy+paste text, they start getting a better idea of who is doing the leaking.
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Confirmed (Score:3)
There is now exclusive footage [youtube.com] of the investigation.
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Yawn (Score:2)
Campaign against Apple continues (Score:1)
Apple's statement above, and its policies, are both (statement and policies) cut-and-paste indistinguishable from virtually every Fortune 500 company.
When the same policies are found literally everywhere, there's no rational reason for the persistent campaign against Apple.
It's as sane as "APPLE EMPLOYEES MUST SIT AT DESKS FOR SEVERAL HOURS EACH DAY" and "APPLE PRODUCTS ARE EXPENSIVE AND MIGHT BREAK LEAVING THE OWNER WITH NOTHING"
The most likely reason is that Apple has been resistant against adding backdoo
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Apple's statement above, and its policies, are both (statement and policies) cut-and-paste indistinguishable from virtually every Fortune 500 company.
Apple is significantly more secretive than most Fortune 500 companies.
Also, just because it's a Fortune 500 company doing something, that doesn't make it ethical. Obviously.
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Apple is significantly more secretive than most Fortune 500 companies.
Keeping product specifications confidential before marketing launch is pretty much universal amongst Fortune 500 companies. Trying to stop leaks once they have been proven is pretty much universal amongst Fortune 500 companies.
Also, just because it's a Fortune 500 company doing something, that doesn't make it ethical. Obviously.
Platitudes are pretty much worthless. Obviously. Misses the point of my comment - that there's nothing different about, and hence no reason to highlight, Apple in particular for something endless numbers of companies do.
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In job descriptions, sometimes Apple asks applicants what they have done to keep a product secret before launch. What other Fortune 500 company does that? Talking to Apple employees, you will find they are significantly more paranoid/secretive than employees at other Fortune 500 companies.
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Sourceless and irrelevant personal anecdotes, no basis in any study that compares "job descriptions" (do you mean job adverts?) across Fortune 500 companies.
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Sourceless and irrelevant personal anecdotes,
Yes, and yet it is more than what you have presented. You lose.
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Well it's a "Fortune 5" company since it is #4 on the Fortune 50 list, so should be 100x more secretive?
The last thing a company of DOUCHES needs. (Score:1)
Maybe it is time for Apple to re-engineer? (Score:2)
Maybe it is time for Apple to re-engineer and be less secretive? If one goes to Dell, HP, or another PC vendor, after signing a NDA, they will show you a roadmap of what they have planned, so you can know how to juggle budgets to get stuff, ideally a little bit after a refresh so version 1.0 bugs are caught in manufacturing.
The Apple secrecy is pointless. The iPhone has some advantages when it comes to speed due to Apple controlling everything on the hardware/software stack, but Android makers have gotten
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> Apple should just make a roadmap, say that feature "xxx" is planned for 2022, and call it done.
Apple constantly misses its internal deadlines. Some stuff is years behind.
They hide those failures behind 'retail surprise' nonsense.
If you're ever tempted to make plans based on any schedule Apple offers you - don't - you'll get burned.
I've seen them lose reliable $30M accounts back when that was real money (and they needed it) because they constantly missed deadlines.
The nice thing about abandoning Corpora
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Never attribute to malice what can be explained with incompetence.
The main reason Apple doesn't give you a roadmap isn't that they try to keep you in the dark, they don't know themselves when which features will be ready. Hell, I'm fairly sure with a lot of them, the question is not when but if.
Oh dear! (Score:2)
Whoever leaked that email is probably screwed.
A great technique to catch leakers is to encode into the email who received it. But all the text bodies are the same you might say!
Nah, you can easily insert a space into the email text in a few different places in some emails and not others, change the punctuation in some emails and not others, add extra capitalisation, even change words to words with similar meaning. You can narrow down the whole mailing list using such a code.
Then when the text is leaked you
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That works, unless you again manipulate the text yourself in the same way before releasing it.
When you have to leak information, first of all retype it yourself. Don't copy/paste, type it. Replace words and phrases, try to keep the meaning but reword it, preferably as much as you're able to.
How much? (Score:2)
I want to know the damages caused by competitors releasing knockoff iphones before the real one.
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Why (Score:2)
The 1984 Apple commercial (Score:1)
The one with the chick that throws the hammer at the man on the screen? Seems that man was Tim Cook.
Laugh. Ok, maybe you had to be there.
WTF am I talking about? This commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]