A former company employee sent and disclosed information to journalists without authorization, violating agreements with the company; Now there's a big risk.
This month, a certain Andrew Aude has seen his name come under the spotlight, but not in the way one might ever hope for: Apple sued him in California state court.
Aude, apparently a former employee of the company, is accused of leaking confidential information to media outlets and employees of other tech companies, thus violating the confidentiality agreement with Apple and labor laws.
The Cupertino giant now claims compensation of at least $25,000 and will have the former employee appear before a jury to answer the charges.
Diary of secrets
Andrew Aude joined Apple in 2016 as an iOS software engineer, taking on a role that gave him access to a wide range of information on software and hardware.
These were not just limited to iOS or iPhone, but also included the recently announced Vision Pro.
The charges extend on a period of five yearsduring which Aude allegedly used his company iPhone to leak information about more than a dozen products and company policies.
Among the numerous features revealed ahead of time by Aude there would be that ofDiary app.
A Wall Street Journal reporter reportedly learned of the details before the iOS 17 update, resulting in articles that teased information about the app.
Aude would send something like 1,400 messages to the journalist, saved in the address book as “Homeboy”, and over 10,000 messages to another journalist from The Information.
Other leaks would concern Vision Pro, as evidenced by an alleged screenshot dated October 2020 on Aude's company iPhone.
Big problems
According to Apple, Andrew intentionally leaked information to the media and journalists in order to compromise products and features that in his opinion he considered them problematic.
The company complains that this disclosure has compromised the surprise effect of the products, a key element of their strategy.
Apple discovered the violations in late 2023, when it fired Andrew for misconduct.
During an interview in November 2023, Andrew denied the allegations; It is rumored that during this same interview he deleted evidence from his work iPhone, including theSignal application used to communicate with journalists.
Later, in a follow-up interview in December 2023, he would only partially admit to some of his actions.
Apple maintains that what Aude did constitutes an ongoing threat, as the extent and intentionality of his disclosures make it difficult to determine what he disclosed and to whom.
Despite attempts to resolve the matter outside of court, Andrew was uncooperative.
Furthermore, he refused to get rid of the Apple shares he received as part of his compensation, further complicating the situation.
Apple intends to pursue both compensatory and punitive damages against him.
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