Normally, I use articles from The Wall Street Journal to kick off my points. But the story making the rounds isn’t, as far as I can tell, in the Journal.
“YouTuber says Apple engineer father fired over her viral iPhone video,” New York Daily News, October 29, 2017 (accessed online). An engineer working on the Apple iPhone X got fired after his daughter posted a video on YouTube showing how it works.
Now, one assumes the engineer was subject to a confidentiality agreement with his employer, and that Apple restricts disclosure of technology prior to release. And he screwed up by leaving his test phone out where his daughter could get it and post the video on YouTube. And Apple had to enforce against the engineer or it would be hard for Apple to enforce against others on the same topic. Trade secrets need to be secret.
Two things. First, people do get fired for disclosing their employer’s confidential and proprietary information to third parties (or, apparently, allowing a family member to do so). Second, do we/you ever leave confidential or proprietary information belonging to our/your employers or clients out where family members can access it?
infogovnuggets 