Apple Assigns Dummy Projects to Engineers it Doesn't Trust, Book Says

Wondering how Apple has always managed to keep details about yet-to-be-released products a top secret? Here's how: According to Adam Lashinsky's new book Inside Apple, Apple makes its new hires work on fake projects for several months until the company is certain the new engineer won't leak out its product information.

According to the book (corroborated by a former Apple engineer), the tech giant makes new hires work on fake projects and keeps on interviewing them until they have gained the company's trust.

A friend of mine who's a senior engineer, he works on - or did work on - fake products I'm sure for the first part of his career, and interviewed for nine months, the employee said at a LinkedIn event where Lashinsky was speaking recently. It's intense. Check out the video below.

Only after the new employees gain the trust of the company, are they taken off the dummy projects and assigned to real ones.

Given the company's obsession with corporate secrecy and skill at controlling information, it's difficult to corroborate the former employee's claim.

However, we won't be surprised if Apple actually does assign dummy projects to new employees, because Apple products are among the most sought-after consumer electronic items in the world and every debut is preceded by a rumor frenzy focusing on the product features and release date.