Apple tasking new workers with fake projects to gauge trust
updated 12:15 pm EST, Mon January 30, 2012
Extension of strict security measures
Apple is so concerned with protecting the secrecy of future products that it's willing to assign some new workers to fake projects until they can be trusted, reports note. The claim recently appeared in Adam Lashinsky's book Inside Apple, but has also been backed up by a former Apple worker who spoke during a Lashinsky appearance at a LinkedIn event. "A friend of mine who's a senior engineer at Apple, he works on -- or did work on -- fake products I'm sure for the first part of his career, and interviewed for 9 months. It's intense," the person said.
The company is known to be highly controlling of workers' access to information. Lashinsky has pointed out that the company is more likely to withhold information than fill people in, to the extent of preventing employees from sharing information with some bosses. Similar to the fake project concept is the "dummy position," in which a person is hired without knowing exactly what they'll be working on.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
not surprising
and I'm glad they are this way. Loose lips sink ships (or new products) especially in high tech, especially when all of Apple's competitors are looking to imitate whatever Apple does.