Reinforces extreme secrecy

Apple is currently preventing access to bills of lading and other import information related to the iPad, a US data protection company claims. Trade Privacy notes that such information is usually available through the Freedom of Information Act; Apple is, in fact, said to be the only major electronics company imposing such secrecy. "Similar companies like Microsoft, Sony and Google continue to import with their product data exposed to the public," Trade Privacy asserts in a report serving as marketing.

The firm argues that denial of public access is a means of countering business intelligence groups like Panjiva and ImportGenius. Such outfits collect data from US Customs, then produce research documents that can be sold to a company's rivals. This makes it possible to learn which products are being made, how many units are being produced and when they might arrive in North America.

For Apple the secrecy may also be a way of preserving the "surprise" factor it counts on for product launches. ImportGenius data was used by the media to predict the timing of the iPhone 3G, and Trade Privacy suggests that it was this that led Apple to enforce much stricter information control. The efforts have been so intense that they may have indirectly led to a Foxconn worker's suicide.

by MacNN Staff