An Apple store in Carindale, Queensland, (one of Queensland’s biggest Apple stores), has been caught up in a photo-sharing ring involving four of their male staff members. Over 100 explicit photos were taken without the consent or knowledge of female customers, as well as of some female staff members. Some of the photos were also obtained when customers sent their iPhones in for repair.
The men would either surreptitiously take photos of female customers, or get them off phones being repaired. Then they would share them in a group chat involving members from other Apple stores in Queensland. After this was all done, the members in the group chat would then give the victims a rating based on their appearance.
An Apple employee told The Courier Mail that,
“One person would take a photo and add it to the chat and others would give the person or their butt or their boobs a rating out of 10 and they would add their own side commentary.”
“Everyone feels uncomfortable and the female staff don’t know how to feel because the leadership won’t tell staff who is involved.”
So not only was the privacy of many women violated for just wanting to get their phone repaired, women working for the Carindale store now don’t know who to trust because their leadership won’t tell them which employees were involved.
In regards to the incident a spokesperson for Apple said,
“Apple believe in treating everyone equally and with respect, and we do not tolerate behaviour that goes against our values. We have met with our store team to let them know about the investigation and inform them about the steps Apple is taking to protect their privacy.”
The fact that Apple leadership won’t tell their female employees which staff members did it is abominable. These women have had their privacy violated by people who they work with – at the very least management should tell any female staff members effected of who’s involved.
An investigation into the incident is still underway.