The iPhone X will drop this week, but if you don’t have to worry about that unless you managed to pre-order Apple’s latest high-end phone. It sold out in minutes and likely won’t be available to those who weren’t quick with their clicking fingers until 2018. But while the impending arrival of a new iPhone is the top story on most Apple fan’s minds, there is a sad side story brewing that highlights the secrecy that surrounds Apple’s product releases.
Brooke Amelia Peterson visited her father at Apple’s campus to get a hands on experience with the iPhone X before its release and to document the experience, she filmed it all for a vlog. The clip shows Peterson showing off an employee version of Apple’s new phone, complete with “sensitive information like codenames for unreleased products and staff-specific QR codes” according Engadget. That would normally be enough for the clip to raise some eyebrows, but Peterson’s vlog also broke Apple’s rules about filming on their campus.
All of this forced the company to fire Peterson’s father over the video, made worse once the clip went viral and spread outside of her own account. This made just removing the clip impossible and placed both sides in a difficult position. As Engadget points out, Apple’s position is understandable due to their need to protect corporate secrets and future ideas. The policies are in place to protect everybody and the company, leaving the need for any infraction to be treated seriously.
On the other hand, Peterson’s father ends his Apple career right on the verge of the product he spent so much time working on is set to be released. It should be a time for celebration and he is instead out of a job and his daughter is posting tearful responses on YouTube to address the situation.
The Verge adds that this is far from the first time a situation like this has happened, pointing to a 2005 incident where a Microsoft employee’s son posted images of the Xbox 360 ahead of its release and was terminated as a result.
It’s a reminder about the lengths some companies have to go to protect their projects and a warning to other employees about keeping their work under wraps until they are told it is OK.