Apple is starting to drop the hammer on leakers.
The world’s most accurate Apple leaker, a Weibo blogger by the name of “Kang,” says he has been hit with a legal warning from Apple stating he must stop sharing information about the company, explains a new report from 9to5Mac.
The user posted on his Weibo account that he has received warnings from the lawyers representing Apple, and he’s not the only one, but many other leakers have received them.
In the letter, explains the report, Apple lawyers warn that leaking information about unreleased products can affect the company in multiple ways, including giving competitors access to secretive information and misleading customers “because what is disclosed may not be accurate.”
“Recently, Apple commissioned a law firm and sent some letters in groups,” Kang writes (translated). “I also received this group message. The content is probably that you can’t disclose what we haven’t published on the Internet, which will give Apple’s competitors effective information and also mislead consumers, because what is disclosed may not be accurate.”
Kang went on to state he had never published undisclosed pictures of products or sold information about Apple, indeed most of Kang’s leaks come in the form of Weibo posts. Notably he has often put out huge leak dumps just days or even hours prior to Apple events, such as the iPhone 12 launch last year.
“I think my experience with Apple products is objective and fair, and the purchase advice has always been to say don’t buy anything, no other nonsense,” Kang explains. “I have never published undisclosed product pictures, which means that Apple does not welcome riddlers and Dreaming, dreaming will violate their confidentiality mechanism, even if I have a dream, Apple’s competitors will obtain effective information.”
He ended the statement saying: “I won’t post riddles and dreams in the future and will delete previous posts on social media,” since “talking will be audited.” He also said that he hasn’t misled customers and warned other leakers that they shouldn’t post anything.
Apple sending legal notices to individuals for leaking their products even though they don’t directly leak the products, asking them to stay quiet, and auditing their social media accounts is really a shame. It’s ironic that Apple always advertises Privacy as their product’s selling point but is taking away a leaker’s privacy by auditing their account.
