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Apple fires iPhone X engineer after daughter’s hands-on video goes viral

Apple fires iPhone X engineer after daughter’s hands-on video goes viral

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Apple has reportedly dismissed an engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X hands-on video went viral on YouTube. Brooke Amelia Peterson published a vlog earlier this week, which included a trip to the Apple campus to visit her father and see an unreleased iPhone X. Peterson’s video was quickly picked up by sites like 9to5Mac, and it spread even further on YouTube.

Peterson now claims her father has been fired as a result of her video. In a tearful video, Peterson explains her father violated an Apple company rule by allowing her to film the unreleased handset at Apple’s campus. Apple reportedly requested that Peterson remove the video, but it was clearly too late as the content spread further and further.

The video probably revealed more than it was supposed to

The video itself may have seemed like an innocent hands-on, but it did include footage of an iPhone X with special employee-only QR codes. A notes app was also shown on the iPhone X in the video, which appeared to include codenames of unreleased Apple products. Filming on Apple’s campus is strictly prohibited, so filming an unreleased iPhone X is a definite rule violation.

We’ve seen similar dismissals in the past. A Microsoft employee was dismissed after his son posted pictures of the Xbox 360 before its release. The Apple engineer in question had worked at the company for around four years, building the iPhone RF and wireless circuit design. The Verge reached out to Apple to confirm the dismissal, but the company has not yet responded to a request for comment.