The tech industry has leaks and there's no way you're going to stop all of them. It's what a lot of tech journalists stake their career on, because everyone wants to have the latest and most accurate information about upcoming devices.
Images courtesy: Reuters
The thing is, Apple is usually better than most others at protecting its secrets. That's because the company takes a lot of precautions. It doesn't allow filming on its campus, employees leaking information can be fired, and it has security guards literally patting down workers at its factories abroad. And yet, news has been getting out.
According to The Information, that's why Apple has stepped up its security game in the past few years. The publication talks about the incident in 2013, when a warehouse employee at one of Apple's largest suppliers sneaked thousands of iPhone 5C shells out of the facility with the help of a security guard. That soon led to photos of the new device appearing online prematurely, ruining Apple's grand reveal.
It was then that Apple started its own manufacturing security division. Called the 'New Product Security Team' (NPS), their only job is to monitor Apple suppliers and assembly partners in China. Initially though, they were also tasked with sealing up breaches, be they digital or physical.
The report talks about other later attempts employees have made to leak new devices, that NPS has successfully stopped. Crazily, one of them even involved factory workers literally carving out a tunnel under the warehouse to sneak components out, Shawshank Redemption-style.
Of course, despite the added security, some attempts will go through. And yet, the report says, Apple usually has enough backup plans to cover their bases then too. They know what's gone missing and where it might turn up.?
For instance, the two factory workers that leaked the iPhone 5C tried again with the iPhone 6. They stole 180 shells of that device by adjusting the inventory tracking system, then put them up for sale on the black market. Apple actually figured out both the leak and sale location, and bought all of the stolen enclosures.
Another story talks about just before the? iPhone X was released. At the time, a business that teaches technicians how to repair Apple devices had access to stolen glass screens for the new phone. So they did the natural thing and went ahead to hold paid classes on repairing the new screen. So to catch the culprits, Apple had a contractor secretly enrolled in the class as a spy.
The main thing the story points out is that Apple doesn't pursue thieves and leakers using legal methods. That's because going to the authorities, especially in foreign countries, would mean drawing unnecessary attention to an incident people might not know about. Plus, they'd have to give descriptions of the stolen parts to the police, which is just as bad as far as leaks go.
So instead they track down leakers using whatever means they have to. But when that happens, all they can do is take back their parts and charge the leakers the street value of the components, instead of suing them for millions in intellectual property theft.
But that's the price Apple pays in order to keep their devices hyped. And it still didn't stop the ugly iPhone 2019 camera bump dummy from leaking out.