The extreme - and violent - methods used to keep Apple's secrets

You honestly think anyone would have any rights in China. You'd have to be deluded to think you would be safe, as this report clearly shows with someone taking a picture from public street.

The fact that any country on this planet does business with China is truly astounding, but goes to prove that money will not get in the way of anything.

By treadmill on 18 Feb 2010

What complaints?

And do you honestly think any kind of complaint would ever get to court or the news? This is big corporate money doing what it does best. Fashionable Apple Chic can hide behind China's complete disregard for Human Rights, and they all make LOTS OF MONEY. Wouldn't surprise me at all if one day we find Apple kit is actually made using Child Labour. Might take the shine off it a bit.

By Wilbert3 on 18 Feb 2010

Sounds familiar

The security sounds familiar, where have I come across that before? Oh yeah, diamond mines, although they will probably shoot you, not call the police.

I've also worked at factories and offices in the UK which have had similar levels of security. You have to leave mobile phones and cameras at the gate (well, if you bring a camera with you, you will probably not get on site, regardless of whether you leave it at the gate or not). We had cars checked at the gate, we had to carry passes at all times and the passes let you into different parts of the building.

Being set upon by guards for taking pictures of the outside of the building? Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, LONDON, ENGLAND!

The same goes for our Royal Navy, heck, I had to have a full vetting of my family before I could get on site there - well, in theory, I got my allowed 4 temporary passes and then was refused access until the vetting was completed; I told the security guard, he would be refused his monthly salary until I had finished programming their personnel system, I got a 2 month pass! :-D

Where is the violence Where are the extreme measures? Those are measures that many companies have used for the last hundred years or so.

This is a Foxconn facility, you even said Apple's products are made in compounds like Longhua, not *in* Longhua...

The violence seems to be Foxconn's security, not Apple's staff.

The paranoia, the not talking to the family about what you are doing, that is NORMAL for many large companies, even in Europe and America.

Heck, for my current job, working for a chemical company, I had to sign a confidentiality clause in my contract, that I wouldn't discuss company plans or manufacturing details with anybody outside the company!

By big_D on 19 Feb 2010

Similar thing has happened to me while visiting a TNT archival site near Birmingham...

By forquare1 on 19 Feb 2010

Confidentiality clauses are so common I'd be very surprised if the reporter themself hasn't signed a few here and there. They are sensible for a business to protect valuable secrets. Some of the methods employed seem rather excessive, but I don't know what financial law is like in china - it may be that it is nearly impossible to take money from employees under such clauses, for example.

By Penguat on 19 Feb 2010

I thought it was interesting that...

...the article started off by noting that many of these companies, and many of their clients, engage in similar behaviour, and then, wham! three pages of isn't-Apple-evil-because-of-all-this-cloak-and-dag
ger-stuff?

I've been in various facets of the software industry for 30 years, and I've never seen a company that wasn't zealously protective of secrets; there's a whole mystique that's been built up about "stealth mode" startups, for instance. For a company with potentially billions of dollars at stake over the lifetime of a product, how much security is enough?

Microsoft try to do the same thing from time to time. They're just miffed because they never manage to pull it off.

By jdickey1 on 21 Feb 2010