Apple seeded disinformation about March 23 event to root out leakers, leaker says
Likely as part of a counter-intelligence program by Apple, top leakers were wrong about Apple having an event on March 23 -- and this is a sign of trouble for their sources inside the company.
A virtual Apple event is expected to take place at the Steve Jobs Theater
Apple is a secretive company that prides itself on the ability to surprise and delight its customers. The ability for leaks to escape to the media is in direct opposition to this, and it is increasingly obvious that Apple is on the defense.
Many reputable Apple leakers reported an Apple event would take place on March 23. Invites for an event usually arrive no later than a week prior, but March 16 sailed by with no indication of an event.
Leakers have mostly remained silent about the misstep -- except for Jon Prosser. In his latest video, he claimed that Apple used a controlled leak to get the March 23 date to all of the leaker's sources.
There is a long history of companies, governments, and other entities using fake information to out a "mole" or leaker. By distributing fake details to a select number of employees, Apple is able to whittle down where leaks are coming from.
Prosser says that he has a separate source that has reported an April event since early February. He chose to ignore that source since every other source indicated March 23.
According to Prosser, the April event will be a pre-recorded video with details of multiple products being released. The "AirTags" and a refreshed 10.2-inch iPad are expected to be announced. There is a slim chance of "AirPods 3" or the next iPad Pro appearing at the event as well.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
A virtual Apple event is expected to take place at the Steve Jobs Theater
Apple is a secretive company that prides itself on the ability to surprise and delight its customers. The ability for leaks to escape to the media is in direct opposition to this, and it is increasingly obvious that Apple is on the defense.
Many reputable Apple leakers reported an Apple event would take place on March 23. Invites for an event usually arrive no later than a week prior, but March 16 sailed by with no indication of an event.
Leakers have mostly remained silent about the misstep -- except for Jon Prosser. In his latest video, he claimed that Apple used a controlled leak to get the March 23 date to all of the leaker's sources.
There is a long history of companies, governments, and other entities using fake information to out a "mole" or leaker. By distributing fake details to a select number of employees, Apple is able to whittle down where leaks are coming from.
Prosser says that he has a separate source that has reported an April event since early February. He chose to ignore that source since every other source indicated March 23.
According to Prosser, the April event will be a pre-recorded video with details of multiple products being released. The "AirTags" and a refreshed 10.2-inch iPad are expected to be announced. There is a slim chance of "AirPods 3" or the next iPad Pro appearing at the event as well.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
Before someone chimes in with “you should stay off rumor sites”, I’ll mention that there are more than simply rumors on AI. I can come here for Apple news, read about new HomeKit products (that aren’t from Apple), etc, and still see headlines that could reveal something about an unannounced product.
There are already good examples vapour-like predictions of about to be released products that have yet to ship: Airtags, 14" MBP, new AppleTV. They've been in every rumour cycles for a year or more!
Staying off AI would do little to shelter one from exposure to rumors, so this isn't an anti-AI point. I simply commend Apple for doing anything they can do keep their secrets secret.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ykZcFYgADfI
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/statutes/federal-trade-commission-act <--
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/statutes/federal-trade-commission-act/ftc_act_incorporatingus_safe_web_act.pdf <--
Section 45.1 of that act says:
Apple may be breaking this act by lying about product release dates (if it did in this case.) It's arguable. The FTC spends a lot of its budget investigating and enforcing this very rule. Investors and stockholders make investment decisions based on rumours like new product announcements. If the rumours are false and intentionally false by Apple, this could be an infraction of the law. If I was Apple, I would limit the false rumours to "less financially important things" like the selection of colours of iMacs.
once discovered though, does Apple sack them, or keep them and keep feeding them bull dust? An interesting decision.
What product release dates did Apple lie about? Apple never announced any product releases, and it never announced any event. If this digging of leakers is true, Apple is only guilty of discussing the event internally, never to be publicly disclosed, which is perfectly acceptable.
The rumors are more exciting than the actual products? Pathetic.
I’d rather Apple sustain their company and revolutionize lives than to have random people get their rocks off of rumors.
I presume the leakers leaked the information so that the recipients could purchase or sell AAPL (and others) ahead of the announcements. This is blatant insider trading. Stock manipulation is a more general, overall opinion-based (usually) collection of comments without (necessarily) any actual information. As for fraud, I don't see Apple corporate actually doing this. If you wanted to go after the leaker for fraud, that's fine but I'm not sure the leaker had enough standing to actually commit fraud. If the leaker was a high ranking Apple employee or on the Apple Board of Directors, they might absolutely have committed fraud. Any kind of lawsuit of this kind is difficult to pursue because opinions don't count (just like mine).
The hilarious thing about the (lack of) March 23 event is how many analysts and youtubers were caught with their pants down. Almost all of them felt the information was valid, including high ranking leak announcers. If this was an Apple insider trap, it was a very good one and should slow down a lot of analysts and commentators from trying to get the news our first.
You don't know if Apple intentionally told employees to release something. We know the public got hold of the data, but we don't know if Apple intentionally made that happen, or if Apple was just trying to identify a leak. We don't know.