Thread by @ashleygjovik

🧵 "#Apple protects the privacy of its users? Not that of its employees-guinea pigs. @ashleygjovik can testify: she was fired for speaking out. With confidential documents to back it up, she reveals an appallingly toxic corporate culture."

-@oliviertesquet via @Telerama

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686529484959762

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "At the beginning of her story, which begins like a remake of Erin Brockovich, the toxicity is actually quite literal: in early 2020, she becomes seriously ill & discovers that her life at Apple is built on California soil laden with carcinogenic solvents"

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686532202868744

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "She notifies her hierarchy, asks for tests. Insistent. Persistent. She is asked to keep quiet. On an internal Slack channel, she gathers the anger, finds a purpose: 'I became a revolutionary when I understood that they didn't care that we could die'."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686534656536602

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "Although she holds a position of authority, the young woman isn't a product of California technological elites, whose credentials she never acquired

In August 2021, Apple put her on forced leave, citing an internal investigation based on her accusations"

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686536439119872

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "From then on, she went all in, first revealing the existence of a clandestine program, #Gobbler (later renamed Glimmer), deployed in 2017 among employees to train Face ID, Apple's facial recognition feature."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686538192334866

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "Once activated, #Gobbler captures a photo whenever it detects a face. It's an eye that never blinks. 'When it comes to data, we want more,' an engineer wrote in an internal email. All data is good, even the most twisted, to create this trombinoscope."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686540876587008

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "Gjøvik finds herself in the crosshairs of the 'Worldwide Loyalty Team', in-house investigators who often made a career in the police or intelligence services. The industrial secrets of the world's largest market capitalization are not to be trifled with."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686544043286528

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "But #Gobbler is not an anomaly. Over the years, #Apple has multiplied its experiments to collect #biometric information on its flock: ear canal scans, sleep measurements, blood pressure and even... menstrual cycle monitoring."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686545909854211

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "The tone is established at the outset: 'You should have no expectation of privacy when using your or someone else's personal devices for business purposes [...] or when you are on Apple premises.'"

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686548338356238

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "The surveillance is invasive, and the silence, non-negotiable. A week after Gjøvik's termination, Tim Cook himself applied the pressure: 'We know that people who leak confidential information don't belong here'."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686551572164621

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "It should be noted that this doctrine of intimidation may not be lasting. At the end of January, upon referral by the whistleblower, the labor law watchdog ruled that Apple's policy of omerta violated the law, paving the way for a trial."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686553862254594

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "For this investigation, I obviously contacted #Apple.

Apple's answer was two words: 'No comment'

The courageous Ashley Gjøvik has found her career path: "public international law, human rights and dystopian mega-corporations'."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686555959345153

@oliviertesquet @Telerama "As a supplement, I take the liberty of reposting here the related story of Thomas Le Bonniec, a domestic spy for Siri. This is a useful library of grains of sand that can be built up little by little."

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686558106890260

@oliviertesquet @Telerama 2019: "Thomas Le Bonniec's story is that of a spy movie without a plot. For months, in an Irish office, he listened to thousands of #Apple Siri recordings, in order to train Apple's AI. Until the transcription was too much. This week in @Telerama"

https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1364507104694960128

"Final note: this article appears in the magazine which will be available on newsstands tomorrow." / fin

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https://twitter.com/oliviertesquet/status/1635686560933859328

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