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Apple

Australian Apple employees traded explicit photos of female staff and customers among each other

posted by Luis D. / Oct 12, 2016, 9:19 PM

Australian Apple employees traded explicit photos of female staff and customers among each other

Apparently, employees in an Apple store in Carindale, Australia stole personal images from customers' smartphones and took photos of female customers and female staff without their knowledge of consent.

More than 100 close-up and explicit photos were taken and shared inside a chatroom without permission, with more such photos pulled from iPhones left for repair. The employees then ranked the images from 1 to 10, judging by the subjects' bodies.

Reportedly, four male staff members have been fired over the accusations, and Apple is flying in an overseas HR executive to manage the situation. Also, the same practice could be occuring in other Apple locations, according to staff reports.

The company issued a statement about investigating a violation of its business conduct policy, but hasn't addressed whether it's looking into other Australian locations.

via 9to5mac

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29 Comments

1. combatmedic870

Posts: 986; Member since: Sep 02, 2015

Soooo...

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:21 PM 3

2. drunkenjay

Posts: 1700; Member since: Feb 11, 2013

That's pretty "genius".

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:22 PM 17

3. kiko007

Posts: 7520; Member since: Feb 17, 2016

That's a pretty "s**tty" joke.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:24 PM 10

6. rick_mobile

Posts: 359; Member since: Dec 13, 2010

joke or not, they do have access to everything in your phone, no privacy. I have a friend that works at an apple store here in southern Cali and he told me some of the nasty pictures he's seen. This is not exclusive to Australia, this happens at almost every apple store lol,

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:30 PM 8

7. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

I'm sure it happens other smartphone stores, not just Apple's

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:32 PM 10

20. RoboticEngi

Posts: 1251; Member since: Dec 03, 2014

Ha ha ha ha.........

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:55 PM 0

23. rick_mobile

Posts: 359; Member since: Dec 13, 2010

Im sure. The point is, it happens a lot more than ppl think

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 11:27 PM 1

17. drunkenjay

Posts: 1700; Member since: Feb 11, 2013

coming from you, it must be a good joke.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:34 PM 1

18. omnitech

Posts: 1131; Member since: Sep 28, 2016

Lol I laughed but your defensive ifan reply made me laugh even more.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:46 PM 3

4. kxng_poetic

Posts: 5; Member since: Mar 17, 2016

I think it was pretty harsh to fire them. A slap on the wrist would have sufficed, cause whether they were working for apple or not, i'm sure they'd still trade pics like that. No need to fire them over it.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:26 PM 0

5. mafiaprinc3

Posts: 585; Member since: May 07, 2012

They made the right choice in firing them. people leave phones for repair trusting Apples technicians to just do a repair not snoop in their phones

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:29 PM 16

10. Doakie

Posts: 2478; Member since: May 06, 2009

Yep. You're definitely retarded. I wouldn't want you working for my company.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:59 PM 8

13. NarutoKage14

Posts: 1346; Member since: Aug 31, 2016

They violated the trust and privacy of fellow employees and customers. Not only that they stole personal information from customers devices. If they didn't fire these guys people would no longer accept repairs and demand entirely new devices. That's what I would demand of I knew my info was going to be stolen while my device was repaired.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:04 PM 8

8. TechNeck

Posts: 657; Member since: Aug 29, 2014

NOPE. KFDKFKDFKDKFDKFDKFKDKFDK

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:32 PM 0

9. Eurethya

Posts: 29; Member since: Sep 18, 2015

I think thats why you need an sd card on your phone and make sure you put all your pics in the SD, not in the phone.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:36 PM 4

12. Doakie

Posts: 2478; Member since: May 06, 2009

That makes too much sense. Stop that, we're talking about customers of the smartphone with training wheels here...

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:00 PM 7

11. Fona13A unregistered

And Apple employee's can do no wroooong~ Kek

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 9:59 PM 2

14. sissy246

Posts: 7129; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

WOW I can't beleave some of you think it's just fine they did this. I hope the victims sue the employees but it will be Apple they sue. What if it was your photos.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:07 PM 8

15. DeusExCellula

Posts: 1390; Member since: Oct 05, 2014

Despicable invasion of privacy. This is just against common human decency.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:28 PM 10

16. DavMor0069

Posts: 266; Member since: Dec 09, 2015

They took the "courage" a little too far..

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:28 PM 4

19. ilkinandr92

Posts: 50; Member since: Aug 07, 2012

I used to work for Samsung n people had questions about the gallery or how to move pics which involved me going in there to show them. They had same nude content and didn't even care. Its peoples job to remove that s**t before bringing it in.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 10:47 PM 0

22. sissy246

Posts: 7129; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

Yes true they should remove them, but still does not give anyone the right to take the photos and plaster them on the Internet.

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 11:10 PM 1

21. RoboticEngi

Posts: 1251; Member since: Dec 03, 2014

Nice so Apples employees are the security risk, not ios..... Wonder if it also is the employees who sold the icloud logins in the celebrities situation..... But thankfully we don't have apple stores in my country, so no female family member of mine would have to go through her images to check if there's something she didn't want some disgusting apple nerd to steal..... And to all you who don't think it's a big deal. What was your response in the FBI vs Apple fight? Because this is much worse, it is persons who steal private images from customers who trust them. Not the authorities of trying to solve crime.....

posted on Oct 12, 2016, 11:02 PM 3

24. Ticklemyfancy

Posts: 214; Member since: Oct 09, 2016

@Green man , was it you? G'day

posted on Oct 13, 2016, 2:26 AM 1

25. phonehome

Posts: 812; Member since: Dec 19, 2014

No. Donald Trump likely behind it.

posted on Oct 13, 2016, 6:40 AM 1

26. McLTE

Posts: 922; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Apple's response: You brought it in for service wrong! This has been going on FOREVER. Back when I worked for target in the 90's I worked around the photo printing machine. People brought in their rolls of film and we developed and printed the pictures. On several occasions we caught employees making extra prints of the nudies that people sometimes had on those rolls of film. There was also an issue publicized years ago when a Best Buy employee was caught distributing nudies from someones laptop that was brought in for service. The bottom line is - if you bring an electronic gadget in for service and it has your own porn on it - expect it will be seen and copied. While I agree with Apple firing the employees, don't be a freaking idiot and leave your personal stuff on the phones!