Apple employee's job threatened over viral TikTok video
A TikTok video telling people to not unlocking stolen iPhones for the thieves may lead to disciplinary action for the Apple engineer that contributed.
As a secretive company, Apple has rules and guidelines that its employees must follow, in order for the iPhone maker to closely manage its public image. It appears that the policies could result in one employee losing their job at the company, after providing safety and security advice via social media.
Apple hardware engineer Paris Campbell gained overnight fame by posting to TikTok in response to a video about a stolen iPhone, and threats to the victim over the release of personal information unless she removed the Apple ID from the device.
Campbell's video explained that the threats were minimal, as the user's data was safe and not accessible to the thief. Campbell also explained that the threats to remove the Apple ID were so that it freed the device up for immediate resale, giving it more value to the thief than if it were kept locked and broken up for parts.
The seeming public service wasn't something Apple was happy with, as Campbell claims to The Verge she received a call from a manager on Friday telling her to take the video down. If she didn't, Campbell was threatened with disciplinary action "up to and including termination."
Apple's social media policy to employees advises against discussing Apple's customers, other employees, or any confidential information. However, it doesn't completely ban the talk about publicly-known technologies.
The company's policies also reportedly prohibits employees stating that they work for Apple at all. In Campbell's original video, she states "for the last six years, I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain company that likes to talk about fruit."
Campbell later posted a video titled "Dear Apple," outright confirming she was an Apple employee, and that she was waiting for a further response over her continued employment.
The engineer is hopeful, though, as "after reviewing the social media policies nowhere does it say I can't identify myself as an Apple employee publicly, just that I shouldn't do so in a way that makes the company look bad."
Campbell found Apple's response to be "directly in contrast to how we portray ourselves as a company in terms of telling people to think different, innovate, and come up with creative solutions."
"I don't just have all this Apple knowledge because I work for Apple," she adds. "I come to this knowledge because I have a long technical education and history. That's why they hired me."
Apple has yet to comment on the situation.
Apple's famed secrecy was a recent topic of conversation by YouTuber Mark Rober, who spoke about his time at Apple on an August 4 podcast. Rober revealed that he was approached by Apple when he had 250,000 YouTube subscribers, and was initially told he couldn't make YouTube videos anymore.
After discussions, Rober and Apple agreed to a three-month delay on videos so he could experience the culture of the company, and that he couldn't mention Apple's name nor his employment with them.
Later, when asked to appear on TV with talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel, Rober checked with Apple, but the response from Dan Riccio hinted he shouldn't proceed. Rober pressed on with the appearance regardless.
Rober reckoned that, to Apple, "there's nothing beneficial, there's no upside to them by having me be an Apple employee and having a large following." Influencers as employees with a significant following is "only downside" to Apple, as the company "doesn't need me to get their story out."
Read on AppleInsider
As a secretive company, Apple has rules and guidelines that its employees must follow, in order for the iPhone maker to closely manage its public image. It appears that the policies could result in one employee losing their job at the company, after providing safety and security advice via social media.
Apple hardware engineer Paris Campbell gained overnight fame by posting to TikTok in response to a video about a stolen iPhone, and threats to the victim over the release of personal information unless she removed the Apple ID from the device.
Campbell's video explained that the threats were minimal, as the user's data was safe and not accessible to the thief. Campbell also explained that the threats to remove the Apple ID were so that it freed the device up for immediate resale, giving it more value to the thief than if it were kept locked and broken up for parts.
The seeming public service wasn't something Apple was happy with, as Campbell claims to The Verge she received a call from a manager on Friday telling her to take the video down. If she didn't, Campbell was threatened with disciplinary action "up to and including termination."
Apple's social media policy to employees advises against discussing Apple's customers, other employees, or any confidential information. However, it doesn't completely ban the talk about publicly-known technologies.
The company's policies also reportedly prohibits employees stating that they work for Apple at all. In Campbell's original video, she states "for the last six years, I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain company that likes to talk about fruit."
Campbell later posted a video titled "Dear Apple," outright confirming she was an Apple employee, and that she was waiting for a further response over her continued employment.
The engineer is hopeful, though, as "after reviewing the social media policies nowhere does it say I can't identify myself as an Apple employee publicly, just that I shouldn't do so in a way that makes the company look bad."
Campbell found Apple's response to be "directly in contrast to how we portray ourselves as a company in terms of telling people to think different, innovate, and come up with creative solutions."
"I don't just have all this Apple knowledge because I work for Apple," she adds. "I come to this knowledge because I have a long technical education and history. That's why they hired me."
Apple has yet to comment on the situation.
Apple's famed secrecy was a recent topic of conversation by YouTuber Mark Rober, who spoke about his time at Apple on an August 4 podcast. Rober revealed that he was approached by Apple when he had 250,000 YouTube subscribers, and was initially told he couldn't make YouTube videos anymore.
After discussions, Rober and Apple agreed to a three-month delay on videos so he could experience the culture of the company, and that he couldn't mention Apple's name nor his employment with them.
Later, when asked to appear on TV with talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel, Rober checked with Apple, but the response from Dan Riccio hinted he shouldn't proceed. Rober pressed on with the appearance regardless.
Rober reckoned that, to Apple, "there's nothing beneficial, there's no upside to them by having me be an Apple employee and having a large following." Influencers as employees with a significant following is "only downside" to Apple, as the company "doesn't need me to get their story out."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
It's common knowledge.
The issue is breaking employment rules. It's not about punishing her for what seems to be a good deed. Every Apple employee knows the rules and they know you face a strong likelihood of being fired if you break them.
I have not seen the video in question and not about to log on to TikTok or sign up for a TikTok account to do so, but if she made it seem that her advice is the same advice Apple would have made, then she is wrong to make it seem that way. She probably would have been OK to give that advice and just mention that she's a tech that knows a lot about Apple security features and this would not be a problem with Apple. But once she revealed that she was an Apple employee with expert knowledge about Apple security features, viewers might now have the misconception that she is representing Apple when she gave her (helpful) advice.
Now if her advice was Apple documented policy, she should have cited or mentioned that and not maybe give the impression that it was, based on her being a knowledgeable Apple employee.
Who knows, maybe by revealing that she's an Apple employee working in the field of security for the iPhones, she might be getting better job offers from the FBI and NSA. That might be more of a concern for Apple, than the (helpful) advice she gave.
” A TikTok video telling people to not unlocking stolen iPhones for the thieves may lead to . . .”
Writing such as this only detracts from the quality of the site.
Her mistake was alluding to the fact she's an Apple employee. She didn't say she represented Apple, but those viewers who aren't very bright might jump to that conclusion. So Apple the first rule of the Apple Employee Club is don't talk about Apple.
She could pull the video and redo it without any mention of "the fruit company <wink><wink>' and repost it, but I don't see Apple being that forgiving at this point, or they might have suggested that.
Dude, what are you huffin'?? They, the criminal(s) don't clearly know who the victim is or where they live. Their threat is to release data they don't have, not that they'll come and force the theft victim to unlock the phone. And exactly how is the victim going to "get aggressive"? Campbell is telling them to ignore the email. The end.
Apple clearly want's to be the master and spokesperson of their domain and they don't need or want a probably junior engineer doing it for them. If she wants to keep her job, she should pull that video and say no more. Well, for awhile at least. But she's now known to be a Apple employee, so any video or posts on tech may put the spotlight on her again, as an Apple employee even if she doesn't even hint it. That genie is out of the bottle.
It's an excellent video, she's well spoken, knowledgable and concise. It would be a shame if she lost her job, but Apple probably knows they could replace her in short order.
No union no protection, there is no upside for Apple for her free advice just a lawsuit down the road from a disgruntled user quoting her in a class action lawsuit…
That contract is written by Apple for it’s benefit not the employee at will is at will, a union contract however might spell out the little things of what might happen to a worker at a company under certain conditions which is why companies and those who suck up to companies hate unions. Companies or Governments are not your friends or family.
Apple has every right to let her go, but I hope they don't. Or maybe she was looking for a job anyway. Apple could tell her to keep quiet about anything Apple, and make her sign an NDA not to talk about Fight Club. She could still work at Apple and let the general public think she was fired. That might suit Apple to a T.
Anyway, she's a pretty sharp cookie, well spoken, and with great delivery, so I she stays even if she can't tell us.