Apple Partner Goes to Great Lengths to Protect Company Secrets

An interesting report (to say the least) reveals that Apple’s renowned secrecy goes as far as R.P. China. It is known that the Mac maker goes to great lengths to protect company secrets, while those who don’t comply usually get more than just a slap on the wrist, the report in question outlines.

In the South China city of Longhua, Apple has Foxconn International (a unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry) as a partner. It provides parts for its iPods, iPhones and other products. The facility is like a small town, with dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, banks, post offices and bakeries. Yes, Apple has almost complete control over the workers’ lives, ensuring they don’t get company secrets across the other side of the fence.

"Security is tight everywhere inside the factories," said a uniformed worker outside the Foxconn factory in Longhua (about an hour from Hong Kong), according to a Reuters report. "They use metal detectors and search us. If you have any metal objects on you when you leave, they just call the police," he added.

Apple will almost always have someone suspected of leaks. So, what it will do is land a contract to a manufacturer, just to try them out. If a leak is made in that direction, Apple will instantly know where it came from, people familiar with the supply chain say. Moreover, to ensure that possible leaks don’t provide clues about the end-product, Apple will contract many firms for supplying the parts for a certain product.

"This ensures that the only people who have all the secrets to any Apple product is Apple itself," a senior official at a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry shared. "Other tech companies will also look for their own sources of components to compare, but none of them do as many things in-house as Apple does."

An official at another supplier explained, "The typical production line worker will not see the product until the very last minute when actual production takes place. It's all concentrated in the hands of a few product development teams." The discretion that Apple demands from its suppliers is merely an extension of the way the company operates at its own corporate headquarters in Cupertino, former employees say.

The report shockingly reveals that one former employee, who worked in the marketing department at the time of the iPhone launch, said he didn’t even dare talk to his wife about the upcoming product, although he was aware of the company’s plans, the report suggests. "I didn't even talk about it with my wife," he pointed out. "It's a culture of silence and it's just accepted. You get used to not talking about your work, it becomes normal because everybody is doing the same thing."

Finally, the report includes a short story about a reporter who was tipped off that Foxconn was working on parts for Apple products. As he was taking pictures of the front gate and security checkpoint, he was assaulted by two guards who roughed him up. The police eventually came to the scene, calming spirits down. The guards finally apologized, while the police told the reporter he could file a complaint, which he didn’t, for one reason or another. "You're free to do what you want," the policeman explained, "But this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand."

Neither Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding, nor Apple were willing to issue a statement, in light of this story hitting the wires.

Update: this article has been modified to correct a number of erroneous accounts regarding the location of the Foxconn International facility. The headline has also been changed to emphasize that it's actually Apple's part suppliers (rather than the Mac maker itself) who were involved in the incident described towards the end of the article.