Apple has taken a legal action against former employee Andrew Aude, accusing him of “Violating” the confidentiality agreements and labor laws. The lawsuit is filed at California state court, accusing Aude of leaking sensitive information to the media and employees at rival tech firms. Apple is seeking damages exceeding $25,000 and has requested a jury trial.
What did Aude leak of Apple?
Andrew joined the company as an iOS software engineer in 2016. He had access to “special” details concerning numerous confidential projects within the company.
According to the complaint, over a span of five years, he purportedly utilized his office iPhone to leak this information regarding several Apple products and internal policies. These disclosures included details about released products such as the Journal app and Vision Pro headset, along with strategic and regulatory information, a 9 to 5 report has revealed.
According to court documents filed in the Superior Court of California, Aude is accused of breaching of confidentially agreements and divulging details about several of the company’s projects. Among which the most prominent is the Journal app, which was still yet to be launched at the time of leaks. The app’s features, design, and purpose were all exposed leaving the company in a compromised situation.
Andrew has been sacked by the company but Apple said he still posses an ongoing threat based on his knowledge of Apple’s confidential and proprietary information.
Apart from the Journal scam, Aude allegedly also spilled the beans on the Company’s strategies for regulatory compliance, a topic which was deemed to be “top secret” within the company.
Aude did not stop here as he also disclosed information about Apple’s development efforts in the spatial computing space-a field where the company was maintaining a wall of secrecy.
He did so in 2020 to a non Apple maintains a veil of secrecy. He did so in 2020 to a non-Apple employee which was close to three years before Vision Pro-Apple’s First spatial computing device as launched.
The company claims that this incident adversely affects them as this disclosures led to the publication of at least five news articles, adversely affecting the company’s ability to surprise consumers with new products. Also Apple claims that Andrew’s action were deliberate and extensive , aimed at undermining products and features he allegedly disagreed with.
The report further alleges that Audre attempted to conceal his misconduct by deleting evidence from his work iPhone, including the Signal app used for communication. Apparently the Company tried to resolve matter out of court despite facing damages but Aude purportedly refused to cooperate fully, leading to the decision to purpose legal action.
Aude’s response to the lawsuit
In response to the lawsuit, Aude has reportedly declined to strip himself of restricted Apple stock units received as a part of compensation package.
The company accuses Aude of having relationships with individuals at other tech companies and journalists pose an ongoing threat to the companies confidentiality.
With the case now being in litigation, Apple is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages, along with other legal remedies, to address the alleged breach of confidentiality by its former employee.
