Apple this month sued its former worker Andrew Aude in California state courtroom, alleging that he breached the corporate’s confidentiality settlement and violated labor legal guidelines by leaking delicate info to the media and staff at different tech corporations. Apple has demanded a jury trial, and it’s searching for damages in extra of $25,000.
Aude joined Apple as an iOS software program engineer in 2016, shortly after graduating school. He labored on optimizing battery efficiency, making him “aware about info relating to dozens of Apple’s most delicate tasks,” in keeping with the grievance.
Leaks
The lawsuit alleges that over a five-year interval, Aude used his Apple-issued work iPhone to leak details about greater than a half-dozen Apple merchandise and insurance policies, together with its then-unannounced Journal app and Imaginative and prescient Professional headset, product improvement insurance policies, methods for regulatory compliance, worker headcounts, and extra.
In April 2023, for instance, Apple alleges that Aude leaked a listing of finalized options for the iPhone’s Journal app to a journalist at The Wall Avenue Journal on a cellphone name. That very same month, The Wall Avenue Journal‘s Aaron Tilley revealed a report titled “Apple Plans iPhone Journaling App in Growth of Well being Initiatives.”
Utilizing the encrypted messaging app Sign, Aude is alleged to have despatched “over 1,400” messages to the identical journalist, who Aude known as “Homeboy.” He’s additionally accused of sending “over 10,000 textual content messages” to a different journalist on the web site The Data, and he allegedly traveled “throughout the continent” to satisfy along with her.
A screenshot included within the lawsuitDifferent leaks relate to the Imaginative and prescient Professional and different {hardware}:
As one other instance, an October 2020 screenshot on Mr. Aude’s Apple-issued work iPhone exhibits that he disclosed Apple’s improvement of merchandise inside the spatial computing area to a non-Apple worker. Mr. Aude made this disclosure though Apple’s improvement efforts have been confidential and never recognized to the general public. Over the next months, Mr. Aude disclosed further Apple confidential info—together with info regarding unannounced merchandise, and {hardware} info.
Apple believes that Aude’s actions have been “in depth and purposeful,” with Aude allegedly admitting that he leaked info so he may “kill” merchandise and options with which he took problem. The corporate alleges that his wrongful disclosures resulted in not less than 5 information articles discussing the corporate’s confidential and proprietary info. Apple says these public revelations impeded its capacity to “shock and delight” with its newest merchandise.
Apple Finds Out
Apple mentioned it realized of Aude’s wrongful disclosures in late 2023, and the corporate fired him for his alleged misconduct in December of that 12 months.
In a November 2023 interview, Apple alleges that Aude denied leaking confidential info to anybody. Nevertheless, throughout that interview, Apple alleges that Aude went to the toilet and deleted “important quantities of proof” from his work iPhone, together with the Sign app that he used to speak with “Homeboy.”
Throughout a follow-up interview in December 2023, Apple alleges that Aude admitted to a few of his wrongful disclosures, however claims he solely supplied “slim admissions restricted to the knowledge he had not been capable of destroy.”
Apple tried to resolve this matter out of courtroom, but it surely mentioned Aude was uncooperative:
Apple doesn’t deliver swimsuit in opposition to its former staff evenly. On account of Mr. Aude’s willful destruction of proof, nonetheless, Apple can’t know the universe of what he disclosed to whom and when. Earlier than submitting this lawsuit, Apple reached out to Mr. Aude to doubtlessly resolve this matter. Over a month in the past, Apple contacted Mr. Aude to know the complete scope of his leaks and ask for his full cooperation in resolving this matter with out litigation. Mr. Aude, nonetheless, didn’t decide to cooperating.
Aude has additionally allegedly refused to divest of the restricted Apple inventory items that he acquired as a part of his compensation bundle.
Apple mentioned that Aude poses an “ongoing risk” to the corporate as a consequence of his “lengthy and in depth historical past of exposing it to 3rd events deliberately and with out authorization, his continued relationships with people at different know-how corporations, and journalists, and his makes an attempt to hide his misconduct.”
Apple is searching for each compensatory and punitive damages in an quantity to be decided at trial, and it’s also searching for different authorized cures.
The complete grievance could be seen on this PDF file.
