In a drastic authorized step that can have set alarm bells ringing all through the tech rumorsphere, Apple has sued the YouTuber Jon Prosser for leaking details about iOS 26 forward of its launch. Or, extra particularly, for the strategies he allegedly used to acquire that info.
As reported by MacRumors, the corporate on Thursday filed a lawsuit (Scribd hyperlink) in opposition to Prosser and his affiliate Michael Ramacciotti, alleging misappropriation of commerce secrets and techniques. The go well with accuses the 2 of a “coordinated scheme” to interrupt right into a “growth” iPhone, steal Apple secrets and techniques from it, and revenue from them, thereby harming the corporate and its workers.
“Defendants’ misconduct was brazen and egregious,” the go well with asserts. “After Mr Prosser discovered that Mr Ramacciotti wanted cash, and that his pal Ethan Lipnik labored at Apple on unreleased software program designs, Defendants collectively deliberate to entry Apple’s confidential and commerce secret info by Mr Lipnik’s Apple-owned growth iPhone.
“Whereas staying at Mr Lipnik’s dwelling, Mr Ramacciotti used location monitoring to find out when Mr Lipnik could be gone for an prolonged interval, acquired his passcode, and broke into his Growth iPhone, which Mr Lipnik had didn’t correctly safe in line with Apple’s insurance policies. As he detailed within the audio message, Mr Ramacciotti made a video name to Mr Prosser and ‘confirmed iOS’ on the Growth iPhone. He demonstrated a number of options and purposes, disclosing particulars of the unreleased iOS 19 [later announced as iOS 26] working system.”
Apple is known for the zealousness with which the corporate guards its secrets and techniques, however this can be probably the most aggressive step it has taken in opposition to a leaker since Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s dwelling was raided in 2010.
iOS 26, Apple’s latest iPhone software program replace, was unveiled at WWDC in June, however as is commonly the case with unreleased Apple merchandise it had been the topic of intense and argumentative hypothesis lengthy earlier than then. In March, Prosser posted a video claiming to supply “your very first have a look at iOS 19,” and later confirmed a screenshot of the brand new Messages app in a podcast. (It’s attainable these movies will likely be taken down because the lawsuit progresses, so when you’re studying this sooner or later, you might have to take our phrase for it.) Fellow leaker Mark Gurman then claimed that iOS 19 screenshots doing the rounds–most likely together with Prosser’s screenshot, however not naming him–have been “unrepresentative,” earlier than Prosser lastly hit again with the “greatest iOS leak ever.”
It now seems, if we’re to imagine Apple’s model of occasions, that Prosser was so bullish about his info as a result of it had been acquired from certainly one of Apple’s personal gadgets operating a pre-release construct of the software program.
However Prosser claims in any other case. In a pair of replies to MacRumors’ tweet about this story, the YouTuber says “This isn’t how issues went down on my finish” and “I definitely didn’t ‘plot’ to entry anybody’s telephone and was unaware of the state of affairs enjoying out.” That would seem to indicate that, whereas Ramacciotti could certainly have lifted the data from Lipnik’s iPhone, Prosser didn’t ask for this to occur nor know when it did.
(It’s additionally placing that the primary phrase of his reply is solely “Attention-grabbing.” That’s an astonishingly calm response to being sued by one of many greatest and most litigious corporations on the earth. He’s an uncommon character, as we discovered after we interviewed him again in 2020.)
It will likely be attention-grabbing to see how this transfer impacts the movement of data by the tech rumorsphere: whether or not leakers will likely be cowed into silence, even when solely briefly, and whether or not their sources dry up. It does elevate the query, after all, of how leakers purchase their details about unreleased iOS builds if not by strategies just like the one described on this lawsuit. How did Gurman find out about iOS 19/26? Will he be sued? Is there a reliable strategy to leak?
All these questions and extra will likely be answered within the coming months. We’ll comply with the case because it progresses and report the massive developments right here on Macworld.
