Apple Reportedly Fires iPhone X Engineer After Hands-On Video Leak

Apple has reportedly fired an engineer who helped in developing the upcoming iPhone X. The reason? Apparently, the engineer’s daughter leaked a hands-on video of the 10th anniversary handset online way ahead of the device’s release.

Last week, YouTuber Brooke Amelia Peterson posted a vlog update on the video-sharing website for her subscribers and fans. While the video itself was pretty harmless, it caused a very serious repercussion: Peterson’s father lost his job.

Peterson’s post, which has since been deleted, featured very simple activities. It started with the teenager addressing her fans, followed by some scenes that showed the vlogger doing some shopping. Eventually, Peterson met up with her father at Apple’s campus for lunch.

While enjoying their meal, Peterson’s father handed her an iPhone X unit to check out. For almost a minute, the elated teenager used the different features of the new smartphone and showed them off in her vlog. Little did she know that the video would quickly garner media attention as it was the first ever hands-on video of Apple’s hotly anticipated iOS 11 device.

After the video became viral, Apple requested for its removal from YouTube. Peterson did comply to this, but the post has already been copied by other users. There’s a copy of Peterson’s entire vlog post on YouTube, and there’s also a short clip of the hands-on available on Reddit.

On Saturday, Peterson addressed the issue in a new post in which she confirmed that her father was indeed fired over the leaked hands-on video. As per Apple Insider, Apple’s policy strictly prohibits the documenting of unreleased hardware. It is prohibited to circulate photos, videos, descriptions and footages of an Apple product ahead of its official release.

“At the end of the day, when you work for Apple it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are,” the YouTuber said in her new post. “If you break a rule, they just have no tolerance. They had to do what they had to do.” Peterson also shared that she only made her controversial post “for fun because i love making YouTube videos” and she maintained that she was completely unaware that she broke Apple’s rules.

The Verge has pointed out the different violations Peterson did in her deleted vlog. The viral footage reportedly showed special employee-only QR codes. There was also an instance when a notes app with codenames of unreleased Apple products was shown in the clip. More importantly, it is prohibited to take videos on Apple’s campus.

Peterson’s father was found to have worked on iPhone RF and wireless circuit design prior to his termination. He was also supposed to move to the new Apple Park campus this December. He has yet to personally address the issue, and Apple has also not responded to requests for comment.

The dismissal of the engineer should not come as a surprise. According to Recode, Apple is always zealously guarding against early disclosures and looking out for those who are breaching its NDA. Apple is also famous for concealing pertinent data until the official product launches, so it resorts to using code names to describe internal projects. It also has its own security team and investigators to track down anyone who leaks confidential information.

Apple’s iPhone X is scheduled to arrive on Nov. 3.