Apple is suing a former employee for leaking confidential information to journalists and employees of other companies, including undisclosed details about the Apple Journal program, the development of VisionOS headphones and more. A lawsuit filed ten days ago in California state court (24CV433319pdf), Andrew Aude says it also leaked regulatory compliance strategies, employee numbers and other product specifications.
As previously reported MacRumorsin at least one message, the company claimed that Aude had leaked data, so it was able to “kill” the products and features it addressed.
Apple cited multiple communications in the lawsuit:
Between June and September 2023 alone, Mr. Aude used the encrypted messaging app to communicate more than 1,400 times with a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalist Mr. Aude codenamed “Homeboy.” Mr. Aude also read over the phone the final Homeboy spec list for an unannounced Apple product. Mr. Aude sent another journalist Information He sent over 10,000 text messages and traveled across the continent to meet her.
The following screenshot of an encrypted message exchange in the Signal app between Aude and a WSJ journalist appears in the complaint, as Apple says: “Mr. Aude often took and saved screenshots of their communications on an Apple-issued iPhone to preserve them for posterity.
Apple accuses Aude of leaking the final feature list for Apple’s Journal app to the same reporter in an April 2023 phone call. story about features of the unreleased app appeared that month The Wall Street Journal.
Aude joined Apple in 2016 as an iOS engineer focused on optimizing battery performance. Apple lawyers wrote that the nature of the role gave Aude access to “information about dozens of Apple’s most sensitive products.”
The company says the leaks were not discovered until late 2023. When Apple representatives first met with Aude in November 2023, he denied involvement in the leaks and lied about having an Apple-issued iPhone with him. They then allege that he faked going to the bathroom, “during a break, removed his iPhone from his pocket and permanently deleted a significant amount of evidence from his device, including the Alarm app.”
Then, in the second meeting held on December 12, in the complaint, “Mr. Aude admitted that he leaked information about Apple’s compliance strategies, unannounced products, development policies and hardware specifications of some released products to at least two journalists. He was fired three days later. Apple’s filing says the company is seeking a jury trial, damages, “refund and/or rescission” of bonuses and stock options, and “an order directing Mr. Aude not to disclose Apple’s confidential and proprietary information to third parties without his written consent.” .”