Apple executives have told its employees via an internal memo to stop leaking information on upcoming products such as its iPhones, warning legal action and criminal could occur if caught.
The memo, obtained by Bloomberg, was sent out to all employees on an internal blog saying ‘the impact of a leak goes beyond the people who work on a particular project — it’s felt throughout the company’.
Greg Joswiak of Product Marketing at Apple comments in the memo, “We want the chance to tell our customers why the product is great, and not have that done poorly by someone else.”
The memo says leaks can negatively impact sales and give its competitors a heads up on what the company is working on.
The company says they caught 29 leakers last year with 12 of those arrested with some cases facing ‘jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and theft of trade secrets both classified as federal crimes’.
Tom Moyer from Global Security – who works with Apple to prevent leaks and catch leakers – warns employees the ‘potential criminal consequences of leaking are real’ and can become part of their identity – both professional and personal – forever.
This is not the first time a tech giant has tried to curb leaks with Google firing one of its employees two years ago for leaking internal posts bad mouthing an executive.
This memo from Apple is seen as an aggressive move.
