Apple fires 12 employees for leaking information

Apple has a long history of trying to tightly control information about its products and culture. According to a new report, Apple recently sent a memo warning employees not to leak company information, saying 29 employees were caught last year, 12 of whom were arrested.

Naturally, the memo was leaked. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman got a copy of the sternly worded missive, which was posted to an internal Apple message board. It’s unclear when it was posted.

“Leakers do not simply lose their jobs at Apple. In some cases, they face jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and theft of trade secrets both classified as federal crimes. In 2017, Apple caught 29 leakers. 12 of those were arrested,” said the memo published on Bloomberg.

Apple didn’t specify who was arrested or what they were charged with. The memo said the leakers were Apple employees as well as contractors and supply chain partners.

Multiple employees were caught sharing details about the iPhone X, iPad Pro and Airpods with a 9to5 Mac reporter, according to the memo.