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Apple Fires Employee After Daughter Films Unreleased iPhone X

He took his daughter to work where she filmed the iPhone X prior to its release.
Peterson showing off the unreleased iPhone X.
nextgamehu/Brooke Amelia Peterson/YouTube
Peterson showing off the unreleased iPhone X.

Earlier this week Brooke Amelia Peterson published a video of her Dad's work -- the famous Apple Campus in Silicon Valley.

It seemed innocent enough -- most of the footage was of the grounds surrounding Apple buildings and the cafeteria.

But observers noticed that Peterson's video may have broken a number of sacred company rules.

The first issue was that Apple generally prohibits filming on its campus -- even in the more public areas like Caffe Macs, where the iPhone X was shown off in the video.

The second problem was that the footage actually revealed sensitive information, including code names for unreleased products, and QR codes that are used exclusively by staff.

Peterson's father can be heard saying in the original video that "I did the Apple Pay on that phone, so I wanted to test it".

Apple is yet to respond to requests for comment on the matter. But the company will be wary of the public relations disaster that employee firings can be -- Silicon Valley has often attracted attention for controversial firing decisions.

In August a Google employee was fired after writing a controversial memo which in part wrote that "women, on average, have more openness directed towards feelings and aesthetics rather than ideas. Women generally also have a stronger interest in people rather than things, relative to men".

In response, Google's vice president of diversity Danielle Browne wrote that the document "advanced incorrect assumptions about gender" and that it was "not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages".

And almost ten years ago Microsoft promptly fired an employee after images were released online showing his step-son testing out the almost-released Xbox 360.

In a later video, Peterson explain that she had taken the original video down as soon as Apple had told her too -- but it was up long enough for it to go viral. At one point in the video, Peterson holds up a phone and shows that her video appears in the trending section of YouTube, right next to an Ellen Degeneres video.

Peterson told viewers in the second video that she had "no idea" that her actions were in violation of company policy.

Her father was fired one week before the release of the iPhone X, which boasts a fuller screen on the phone's frame, and facial recognition technology for unlocking the device.

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