Apple is known for the veil of mystery that usually surrounds its releases. From the surprise that Steve Jobs gave to the world with the iPhone to the Apple Vision Pro, the company hopes to surprise us on stage without us knowing anything about the products before they become public. There are always rumors, however, and although sometimes they come from the supply chain, sometimes they come from Apple Park itself.
The value of secrecy at Apple
The mystery that Apple surrounds its launches with, although sometimes it allows for wordplay and hints, is actually a marketing strategy. This marketing strategy, which aims to “surprise and delight” its audience, relies heavily on the company’s ability to keep the details of its new products and innovations secret until the moment of their official presentation. Therefore, leaks not only represent a breach of trust, but they can also undermine Apple’s business strategy.
As reported by MacRumors, Andrew Aude, who joined Apple in 2016 as an iOS software engineer, right after graduating from college, was assigned to projects that optimized battery performance. This role gave him access to information about dozens of Apple’s most sensitive projects. According to the lawsuit filed by Apple in a California state court, Aude began leaking confidential information using his work iPhone.
Over the course of five years, Aude would have leaked details about over half a dozen Apple products and policies. Among them, there is the Journal/Diario app, yet to be announced at the time, the same Apple Vision Pro, product development policies, regulatory compliance strategies, employee headcounts, and more. For example, in April 2023, Aude would have leaked a list of features that the iPhone Journal app would have to a journalist from The Wall Street Journal. An app that we later saw officially announced at the WWDC the following June, but of which we already knew more than Apple would have wanted.
Aude used the encrypted messaging application Signal to send over 1,400 messages to this journalist — like the ones in the screenshot below — and over 10,000 text messages to a journalist from The Information website, even traveling to the other coast of the United States to meet with her.
Apple discovered the behavior that Aude had been having in late 2023 and fired him for alleged misconduct in December of that year. The company claims that Aude initially denied leaking confidential information, but that during an interview he went to the bathroom to delete “significant amounts of evidence” from his work iPhone, including the Signal app he used to communicate with journalists.
In a follow-up interview to that, in December 2023, Apple claims that Aude admitted some of its disclosures, but asserts that it only provided a “specific admission limited to the information that it had not been able to destroy.” Faced with the magnitude of the situation and the obvious breach of trust, Apple attempted to resolve this matter out of court, however, it encountered a lack of cooperation from Aude.
The company emphasizes that it does not take lightly the decision to sue its former employees. However, “due to Mr. Aude’s intentional destruction of evidence, Apple is unable to fully ascertain the extent of what was disclosed, to whom, and when.”
In an attempt to resolve the situation without resorting to legal action, “Apple contacted Aude more than a month before filing the lawsuit, seeking to understand the full extent of their leaks and requesting their full cooperation to resolve the matter without litigation. However, Aude did not commit to cooperate, which ultimately led Apple to take legal action against them.” Apple has requested a jury trial and has set damages at over $25,000, in addition to compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
Cases like this highlight the challenges that technology companies face in maintaining confidentiality in an era of instant and global communication, but also the measures they are willing to take to protect their intellectual property and market strategies. Being able to surprise everyone with their releases is a fundamental component of Apple’s marketing, so leaks are something to take very seriously.
With the legal process underway, the case of Andrew Aude against Apple will not only determine the legal consequences for Aude, but will also set a further precedent regarding how leaks are handled within the technology industry. An industry that invariably captures our attention and makes us want to know everything as soon as possible, like the release date of the 2024 iPads, but also wants some of its releases to take us by surprise.
