In a leaked memo, Apple Inc its urging its employees to stop leaking information on its future plans to the press. The company has informed wannabe leakers that there would be disciplinary and legal consequences for their actions.
The memo is one of the most aggressive measures of its kind in the tech world. The tech giant posted the lengthy document on its internal blog, but the memo was immediately leaked to the media. Apple claims that it apprehended 29 leakers in 2017. Of those, a dozen employees were arrested.
These people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere,
the iPhone maker warned in the memo.
On Friday, Apple declined to comment on the revelations.
Apple Upset about Recent iPhone and Apple Watch Leaks
The company gave examples of leaked plans to the media like an earlier meeting between Apple engineers where Craig Federighi said that the release of some iPhone features would be delayed.
Apple is also upset about a leak concerning a software package affecting the iPhone X and incoming Apple Watch that has not been even released.
The company explained that these leaks can hit sales of current models hard, can help the competition, and deter people from buying Apple’s new products when they are finally launched.
Apple product marketing executive Greg Joswiak told workers that the company’s goal is to convince customers that the new products are great. Yet, the message often cannot get across because of the leaks.
Apple is not the only tech giant that tries to curb leaks to the press. Facebook and Google have fired leakers and kept their plans secret from some of their employees.
Last week, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg complained about Facebook leakers. Two years ago, Google fired a worker for leaking an internal e-mail exchange criticizing a company’s executive.
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