Apple has fired a number of its employees after it emerged that they had orchestrated a “photo-sharing ring,” wherein they would reportedly take “explicit” photos of female customers and staff members and then “rank their bodies out of 10” in a group chat with their male co-workers.
The scandal, which took place in an Apple Store in Brisbane, Australia, saw employees asharing over 100 “close-up and explicit photos” of both female customers and staff members without their consent. The male employees would then share these images with one another, rating their bodies “on a scale of 1 to 10.”
It was also claimed that the employees had carried out data transfers from phones that had been brought into the Apple Store for repair, though Apple confirmed to CNET that the company had found no evidence that this was the case.
Apple claims that its investigation showed no evidence of its employees taking the photos, but has fired several workers as a result of the report. (Image Credit: Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
A report from Australian newspaper The Courier Mail included a conversation with an unnamed Apple staff member, who said: “They’ve been taking pictures of them (customers) in store, taking pics off their phones and taking pictures of female staff members. 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.”
Apple revealed that it had been “investigating a violation of Apple’s business conduct policy at our store in Carindale,” adding that “several employees have already been terminated” as a result of the company’s findings. However, the company noted that in its investigation it had found “no evidence that customer data or photos were inappropriately transferred or that anyone was photographed by these former employees,” with the company refraining from revealing the extent of their involvement in the reported photo-sharing ring.
