Workers at Australian Apple store accused of stealing, sharing photos of female shoppers & staff
A number of Apple store workers in Australia have been implicated in a scandal involving photos of female customers and staff -- including ones allegedly stolen directly from customers' iPhones.
The workers additionally took over 100 "close-up and explicit" photos on their own, and shared all of the images with other shops in the state of Queensland, the Courier-Mail said on Wednesday. Victims were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10.
The photo-sharing ring is said to have first come to light at Apple Carindale in Brisbane, where one worker noticed a technician going through a customer's phone contents in the repair room. This reportedly resulted in four people being fired at the store, and "an overseas HR executive" flying in to control the situation.
"One person would take a photo and add it to the chat and others would give the person or their butt or their boobs a rating out of 10 and they would add their own side commentary," an Apple staffer told the Courier-Mail. "Everyone feels uncomfortable and the female staff don't know how to feel because the leadership won't tell staff who is involved."
Apple leaders have allegedly refused to answer any staff questions or inform affected customers that their privacy was violated.
In an official statement, the company confirmed only an investigation into Apple Carindale, along with "several" firings there.
The workers additionally took over 100 "close-up and explicit" photos on their own, and shared all of the images with other shops in the state of Queensland, the Courier-Mail said on Wednesday. Victims were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10.
The photo-sharing ring is said to have first come to light at Apple Carindale in Brisbane, where one worker noticed a technician going through a customer's phone contents in the repair room. This reportedly resulted in four people being fired at the store, and "an overseas HR executive" flying in to control the situation.
"One person would take a photo and add it to the chat and others would give the person or their butt or their boobs a rating out of 10 and they would add their own side commentary," an Apple staffer told the Courier-Mail. "Everyone feels uncomfortable and the female staff don't know how to feel because the leadership won't tell staff who is involved."
Apple leaders have allegedly refused to answer any staff questions or inform affected customers that their privacy was violated.
In an official statement, the company confirmed only an investigation into Apple Carindale, along with "several" firings there.
Comments
Not the most PC comment in the world, I know. But that is not my objective. Just some observations I've encountered. YMMV
In all probability Apple don't know whose privacy has been violated. At least not all of them. Sleazebag employee takes a covert photo of someone in the store, there's not really any way to track them down and inform them.
The photos taken from equipment in the repair shop is a different matter, but they may not have any way of knowing where some of them came from. Especially not if the sleazebags deleted them before they got caught.
Apple should probably issue a general warning that the Carindale store had this problem. Which they kind of have done. No doubt any proper investigation will identify people who may have been subject to the problem, although I wouldn't trust the Queensland police to know what they're doing, or to not just take copies of the really good photos for their own purposes.
As for those who see Australia as a xenophobic and misogynist society, Queensland is on a whole other level. It's kind of like Florida in that regard.
Just Trump it
ha ha ha
You're spot on, there is certainly a higher percentage of racist and sexists here than in many other countries. After living in Canada for a few years I was on a holiday in Cambodia with some of my friends from Australia. We were on a tour bus that had a few other Aussies that we didn't know. They were so rude and racist that we actually had to tell them to behave or go back to Australia. Really stood out to me how bad there behaviour was. But even my other Aussie friends were outraged and they hadn't been living overseas.
It's an embarsement to have people like that traveling the world and giving Aussies a bad reputation. Unfortunatly there are enough of them like it that it's not an unjust reputation...
If you supply a link to a news article, please make sure the article is in the clear. I don't wish to pay for reading the article.
If such article is behind a paywall, attach a screenshot of the article. f you can't, don't post a link. You're doing a disservice to your readers.
He didn't say we are all like that. Just that there is a reputation for a bigger than normal share of racism and sexism than other countries which is unfortunately true. We are not all racist/sexist and like you said those that aren't are usually very welcoming, friendly, happy etc... It's usually a very polarising difference. I have people in my extended family who are unfortuatly very racist. The rest of the family is the complete opposite and wouldn't have a racist bone in their body.
Just some of my opinions.
Yeah, the Apple Store techs at Apple Carbondale in Brisbane needs (if they haven't been) to be fired. Their employment records should show that they are not to be trusted. I had some of Macs repaired by the Apple Store here in the US. The times that i've taken my Macs to them, I removed the hard drives first. Security and my needs to use them while the Macs was at the Apple Store took priority first. The techs had no problem with me taking out the hard drives.
But tell all of you one thing about Australians in general, I would trust them. Over the last 5 to 6 years I've become great friends with 6 of them. Personally one of them if the conditions was right I would marry her. But the 6 friends I made are true ambassadors of Australia. I have a unique opportunity of viewing their TV shows via satellite. They have the same dreams and desires like us in the United States. I've watched some of their AFL games and found them to be more family friendly than the NFL here.
Yeah, each country has their bogans and rednecks. I kinda regard both nations as sister countries. Each unique but together makes a better world.