Apple issued a memo warning that internal leaks have arrested 12 people last year.

On April 14th, according to Bloomberg News, in a lengthy memo posted on the internal blog site, Apple warned employees not to disclose internal information related to future plans, and said that they may file lawsuits against relevant employees, or even Criminal proceedings. This is also one of the most radical measures Apple has taken to combat leaks.

In the memo, Apple said that "29 leakers were discovered" last year, and 12 of them were arrested. Apple stressed, "These people not only lost their current jobs, but also will be difficult to hire when they apply to other companies."

At a meeting earlier this year, Craig Federighi, Apple's software technology business executive, told employees at the conference that some of the planned iPhone software features would be skipped. Apple also mentioned a package that was not released at the time, revealing the details of the iPhone X and the new Apple Watch that were not officially released at the time. However, the content of this meeting was quickly leaked by internal participants, and Apple was very angry about it. Greg Joswiak, Apple's product marketing executive, said, "We want to find the right opportunity to advertise the product's excellence to our customers. We don't want product information to leak in advance."

Apple's confidentiality of product development plans is well known. In 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook said it would increase its confidentiality in the company's product development program. Despite this, the media continues to expose information about Apple's new products to meet the reader's demand for Apple's information.

In 2017, Apple opened a confidential meeting for employees. Subsequently, media including Bloomberg reported on the iPhone X, the new Apple TV, the new Apple Watch that supports LTE, the augmented reality headset, the new iPad model, the software update package, and the details of the new iPhone and AirPods headsets.

Apple said in the memo that leaking information about new products in advance would adversely affect the sales of current products, allowing competitors to have more time to launch new products, and sales of new products will be affected.

The other two Internet giants, Google and Facebook, are open to information about future plans, but value the confidentiality of information communicated with the outside world. Their attitudes toward leakers are resolutely unacceptable. Once they are discovered, they usually Stir-fry.

In 2016, Google fired employees who leaked criticism of the company's internal documents. However, this employee was sued on the grounds that Google violated his freedom of speech. The employee's attorney said that technology companies sometimes confuse issues that should be allowed to be discussed by employees, such as dissatisfaction with the work environment, with the disclosure of trade secrets. "The expansion of the definition of confidential information makes employees afraid to say And even the topic that they are allowed to talk about."

Bloomberg said Apple’s memo is an important decision made by Silicon Valley’s tech giants to limit employee sharing of company information on a larger scale.