Roger Fingas
A number of Apple store workers in Australia have been implicated in a scandal involving photos of female customers and staff — including ones allegedly stolen directly from customers' iPhones.
The workers additionally took over 100 "close-up and explicit" photos on their own, and shared all of the images with other shops in the state of Queensland, the Courier-Mail said on Wednesday. Victims were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10.
The photo-sharing ring is said to have first come to light at Apple Carindale in Brisbane, where one worker noticed a technician going through a customer's phone contents in the repair room. This reportedly resulted in four people being fired at the store, and "an overseas HR executive" flying in to control the situation.
"One person would take a photo and add it to the chat and others would give the person or their butt or their boobs a rating out of 10 and they would add their own side commentary," an Apple staffer told the Courier-Mail. "Everyone feels uncomfortable and the female staff don't know how to feel because the leadership won't tell staff who is involved."
Apple leaders have allegedly refused to answer any staff questions or inform affected customers that their privacy was violated.
In an official statement, the company confirmed only an investigation into Apple Carindale, along with "several" firings there.
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28 Comments
Perverts are everywhere.
Hate to say it, but Australian workers ain't doing themselves any favours here. As a nation they already have enough of a rep for a bigger than normal share of racism and sexism. I'm not implying all Australians are like this, but I have known people who lived there who said it's noticeable. And when I personally attended the world youth Olympics the Australian athletes were by far the most obnoxious. I'm serious. The Japanese were by far the nicest, but then they commit suicide more than other nations, so perhaps a balance of factors should be the ultimate goal?
Not the most PC comment in the world, I know. But that is not my objective. Just some observations I've encountered. YMMV
Often local culture cross common sense boundary. Apple always take hard stand against any such stupid behavior. and anyone who believes in this is idiot. "Apple leaders have allegedly refused to answer any staff questions or inform affected customers that their privacy was violated." On subject of privacy, there is no privacy as far as someone takes pictures of someone without their knowledge because everyone has phone with camera and they can and will take pictures at will. Unfortunately, not ethical or right but no law can prohibit such act(Unless such pictures are misused).. . 2nd, Google already knows more about you than you, your spouse and your children.So,privacy as we like doesn't exists any more.