Apple sacks employee after daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral on YouTube
Little did Brooke Amelia Paterson knew that a hands-on video of the as-yet-unreleased iPhone X on her YouTube channel would cost her dad his job.
For those unaware, Brooke, a vlogger, had posted a YouTube video last Wednesday showing off the unreleased iPhone X, which was filmed in the cafeteria of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Apparently, the phone belonged to her dad, who worked roughly for four years in RF and wireless circuit design for the iPhone.
Since filming on Apple’s campus is strictly prohibited, the filming of the video is a clear violation of the company’s policies. After the video of the unreleased iPhone X went viral, Apple fired Brooke’s dad from the company. The video shows her dad using the iPhone X to automatically pay for lunch before he allows her to use it. It also showed a notes app, which appeared to include codenames of unreleased Apple products. The video even shows Animojis along with the extended side button and space gray coloring on the back of the device. Although, the viral video was promptly deleted by Brooke on Apple’s request, but it was a tad too late as it got copied and proliferated across YouTube by others.
In a subsequent video posted by Brooke on YouTube on Saturday, she said that she was unaware that she was breaking one of Apple’s basic rule by posting her video to YouTube.
“My dad showed me his phone and I was filming it in the Apple cafeteria. So, yeah, I made this little innocent video that was just supposed to be this fun memory of me and my family … and I have no idea how my video got so much attention considering how many other iPhone X videos there are.”
“At the end of the day, when you work for Apple it doesn’t matter how good of a person you are. If you break a rule, they just have no tolerance. They had to do what they had to do,” she added.
Defending her father, Brooke said that her ‘honest, wonderful’ dad had lost his job as a result of her video, and begged users not to target him. “You know what guys? Hate on me all you want, but please don’t hate on my father, because he’s the best person,” she said.
She also added that “My dad had a really great run at Apple and he appreciates that company for everything they did for his career … my dad’s gonna be OK, he’s an incredible human being and, yeah, I don’t think he deserves this but we’re OK. We’re good.”
Despite the unfortunate result for the engineer, Brooke said, ‘I’m not mad at Apple, I’m not going to stop buying Apple products. Rules are in place for the safety and happiness of workers, and my dad takes absolutely full responsibility for the one rule that he broke.”
