About a decade ago, every Apple keynote was an event surrounded by surprises. Nobody (almost) never knew what would happen there, and the world wondered what Ma's secret was to expand more and more quickly and still keep her projects and future releases under absolute secrecy.
Today we know very well that the answer, basically, in the d. At some point after the launch of the first iPhone, Apple's rise to the top of the world and the consequent expansion of its global operations, most of the company's projects started to leak like water in a sieve long before they saw the light of day. and if forgetting the prototype of an iPhone 4 in a bar was more than enough to scandalize the whole world in 2010, today we treat the countless leaks of carcasses, parts and schematic drawings of future Ma devices with such naturalness that we even chose to cover only the most important of them here in ; otherwise, our agenda would consist of just that.
Not really, however, Apple is satisfied with the current status quo things: the company carried out a internal seminar, aimed exclusively at its employees, to guide them on the best ways to avoid future leaks and reinforce the importance of keeping the company's projects under absolute secrecy; the presentation also has some very interesting details about the pattern of these leaks and Ma's heretical efforts to prevent them from happening.
And, as the gods of irony would never fail to allow, this super-secret leak prevention presentation was leaked!
The one-hour seminar, the recording of which was obtained by The Outline, is entitled “Stopping Leakers Keeping Confidential at Apple” (“Preventing Leaks – Maintaining Confidentiality at Apple”) and was led by three very important names at Apple: director of global security David Rice, director of global investigations Lee Freedman and training manager of the global security team Jenny Hubbert. This is a department that works with the sole objective of preventing leaks and discovering those responsible for what may happen; it is composed mostly of people with passages through the NSA, the FBI, the Secret Service or the Armed Forces, that is, no, we are not dealing with amateurs.
In the presentation, one aspect draws the attention of all of us, who we believe are largely responsible for "spoilers" it would be the supply chain and assembly of Apple products in Asia. According to Ma, today, more leaks leave its campus in Cupertino than from its partner factories on the other side of the world apparently, the company has done extensive (and successful) work to prevent undue exposure to Asian automakers and now must address the secrecy flaws within its own territory.
A part of the seminar features videos from Tim Cook featuring various products in keynotes from the past few years; then, the directors reinforce the need to keep these products confidential until the last moment. How does the The Outline:
After the end of the first video, Hubbert heads to the auditorium. "So you heard Tim say, 'we have one more thing'. But what is that thing? ”She asks. “Surprise and delight. Surprise and delight when we announce a product to the world that has not leaked. incredibly impactful, in a really positive way. our DNA. our brand. But when projects leak, this is even more impactful. a direct blow to all of us.
From then on, the presentation takes, according to the description, a severe tone personally, I would say even a little threatening. Videos of company employees stating that “leaks make me sick” and that “when someone misses something, he is cheating on the rest of the company” serve to reinforce the main point of the seminar: if you work at Apple, keep your mouth open at least regarding the company's projects.
Bar where the iPhone 4 prototype was lostThat is, it is not just individuals with bad intentions acting for profit on these, Apple says as an example that an investigation to catch a spill that was selling classified information took more than three years; the previous year, two malefactors, one from the Apple online store and the other from iTunes, were caught in the act. But Ma's main intention is to instruct her honest employees not to step on their hands and casually miss out on important information.
The speakers themselves claim that this is why many, when hired, immediately delete their Twitter accounts which is basically a polite way of saying, “We can't make you delete your Twitter, but woe to you if you don't and miss something ”. In addition, the content of the seminar instructs employees to never discuss confidential matters in the more “open” areas of campus and not to comment on particular aspects of day-to-day life at Apple with family and friends.
Rice clarifies that the internal myth that anything that is not on Apple's website is not true. Employees are free to share certain things with colleagues and outsiders (from Apple), such as “how stupid is your boss” or your salary, and are also free to speak to law enforcement officers “if the company is doing something illegal ”. The hard line, he says, refers only to unreleased products and services, as well as their availability, which Apple expects its employees to not communicate to anyone who is not authorized.
Apparently, the seminar is only the first of a series of events that Apple will hold on its campus in the coming months to reinforce the culture of secrecy that was once the company's signature. Certainly late to avoid leaks about the highly anticipated “iPhone 8 / X / Edition / Pro”, but we will see if the company's initiative will have any results in the coming years. What do you think?
via MacRumors
