Apple attempts blackmail with its Irish Staff
I have just had three phone calls from Apple staff in Hollyhill today panicking about a note they received this morning the contents of which are below.
“I accept this iPhone gift from Apple on the following understanding
1. I am free to use it myself give to a friend or family member but under no circumstances is the phone to be sold or unlocked
2. I understand that each iPhone can be uniquely identified and tracked via a unique iPhone identification
3. I understand that O2 have exclusive rights in Ireland and I undertake to utilize them as my iphone carrier
4. I understand that if I breach the above that I may be subject to disciplinary action”
I have rang Apple PR, nobody home but will update once I receive further information. My sources inform me that if they don’t sign this they will not receive their iPhone. By the way if any staff members are reading this point 2 is a complete lie.
46 comments...What do you think?
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Wow. Just… wow. That’s incredible, Pat. Sometimes I’m really glad I moved away.
Ridiculous.
It will be very interesting to see how this story evolves..
Is giving somebody a free iPhone really blackmail?
@Twenty Major
it is if you tell them how to use their gift, imagine Moviestar telling you to only watch Moviestar DVD’s on that machine they presented you with or they will send the lads around.
Hmm, I’m struggling to get some indignation going here.
It’s a free gift. If you don’t like the terms and conditions attached to a freebie then don’t accept it.
AFAIK, moviestar don’t give stuff out for free - that analogy doesn’t make sense.
Terms and conditions - aren’t they commonplace?
@aidanfinn
the moviestar thing, 20 understands what I am talking about.
An employer offering you a free gift and then threatening to track you, I must be seeing something that you aren’t
Not a lie. Each phone has a serial number, just like an iPOD.
The text is a fairly standard, if somewhat clumsy, corporate agreement for products given to employees free or at reduced prices. Apple staff in the US also have been issued with these phones and have to use AT+T.
If an employee doesn’t like it, then they shouldn’t take the phone.
Mind you, shareholders should ask why they’re expected to fund the rip-off 02 prices in the Republic.
@uvox
its impossible to track a mobile phone by how it logs onto a network, that’s the point not about serial number, if I put a Meteor sim in an iPhone it just works
You get a free iPhone which you don’t have to accept and then complain about it? OK, good luck with having that attitude in life.
Mind you, shareholders should ask why they’re expected to fund the rip-off 02 prices in the Republic.
See, there’s the thing for me. I couldn’t care less what restrictions Apple put on employees who get a free iPhone. If you don’t like the rules don’t take the phone.
I went into an O2 shop and told them I’d buy an iPhone (eyes lit up) as soon as they introduced packages that weren’t total rip offs (eyes not so lit up).
Bloke in the shop said I wasn’t the first to complain.
I used to get those kinds of conditional terms of use but never used my own signature when completing the release forms. And most times, the people taking the forms recognised the names of the recently deceased in place of my signature. We all lived happily ever after.
i think you’re reading too much into the tracking thing. it’s the physical handset apple they would track by serial number. the notice is a standard scare notice for benefits in kind.
microsoft etc sell software products at a fraction of the full cost to employees, and the products are plastered with stickers about not for resale etc.
As for those O2 - i doubt they give a rat’s arse who has the phone as long as their illgotten funds pour into their coffers.
They should rewrite it however:
“I accept this iPhone gift from Apple on the following understanding:
1. That Apple continues to manufacture and ship product from China despite that country’s shite record on human rights.
2. I understand that Apple has no sense of irony in that they once used pictures of the Dalai Lama to promote their products: http://www.theapplecollection.com/various/Celebrity/DalaiLama.html
3. I understand that O2 have exclusive rights in Ireland and are taking the piss with their pricing, but will get away with it due to that deadly combination of vanity and stupidity.
4. I also realize that I’d be better off with one of Nokia’s more advanced models and spending the difference on drink. Or I will.
Let them see following through on those conditions. It will never stand up in court.
I am still surprised that you are not offerigng a free iPhone unlocking service so you can send them all back with a MaxRoam sim…
Theoretically (as in exceptionally) couldn’t the phone be tracked by its IMEI ? Though in this case they’d probably only be able to show that the IMEI never went on o2 with an o3 sim..
But I don’t see this as being odd or particularly heavy-handed - it’s the old “we’re giving you something free , you can’t sell it and you are definitely not allowed to use it on a different network. If you don’t agree then you won’t get the phone” routine.
I would expect Vodafone or 3 or whoever to do something similar if they gave a phone as a gift (and not a tool) to an employee.
Let’s face it as long as Apple have made a comfortable bed with O2 and other nominated carriers they can hardly let their employees subvert this relationship.
@des do you honestly expect that Meteor or Vodafone would tell Apple or O2 that an iPone with one of their IMEI has signed onto networking.
My point is not the phone for free, my point is the scaremongering and false threatening of staff.
Apple are giving their staff (i)phones for free. They’re attaching conditions to them.
So what?
If you don’t like the conditions don’t take the phone.
Are they going to face disciplinary action if they don’t accept the freebie?
Although I know the common practise of signing away your adherence to terms and conditions, it’s a bit of a misnomer to call anything a gift if it’s accompanied by any kind of chilling effect.
What is your point?
If it is so much trouble and fear of being tracked, you don’t have to accept the gift.
Or are you trying to tell us that your position in the organisation is so vital that Apple needs to track you 24 hours by pretending to give you a gift.
BTW what is your position in Apple?
All GSM phones in the world can be uniquely tracked because every time they ping a cellular network, they transmit their unique IMEI number to the network.
Apple is only likely to know about it if networks share information on user behavior with them. this sharing of phone use behavior info is illegal in most places so….
Whiny, whiny.
These workers are not “entitled” to a free iPhone. It is great of Apple to give them away to its employees.
If you can’t agree with the generous terms of receiving it, maybe you are working for the wrong company.
@adamC
I have an iPod touch, I have an iPhone and I have Macbook, that’s my only link to Apple
this isn’t blackmail by Apple. It would be if they said “take this all of you and use it - or you’re fired”. If you want blackmail talk to iPhone users in the RoI about O2…
There’s a nice app for the iPhone to change the IMEI I do believe.
@Pat - Naturally I dont think that VF etc are going to tell Apple anything. Thats why I wrote (incl typo) “Though in this case they’d probably only be able to show that the IMEI never went on o2 with an o3 sim” - meaning that if push came to shove and Apple and O2 were paranoid enough the best they could do is see if the IMEI ever presented itself on the O2 network whch wouldn’t prove much one way or the other.
Of course there is the IMEI changer mentioned by Damien !
The bigger argument really has to be around pricing - I cannot see any way to justify O2 and their gouging of customers - then again if enough folk signup they won’t feel the need to change.
@Des, thanks
I think my position on the pricing is pretty clear
Well, although I tend to agree that the terms are there for an employee to agree to or ignore. I would raise my eyebrows at number 3.
European legislation does not like terms being forced on consumers and Apple’s exclusive deal with certain operator’s has been a topic of discussion in Europe recently.
http://snipurl.com/22t9r
erm oops, meant to say “agree to or reject the gift”.
Posting early in the morning is never smart =)
I think 99% of people who have ever worked in an IT company that provides product to employess will need a major incentive to really drum up even a false sense of outrage about this one.
Maybe: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/03/28/notes032808.DTL
What is it with righteous indignation here? It’s a free iPhone and to get it you have to follow some rules.
This whole foul-up smell of self-entitlement. If you buy it with your hard-earned then jailbreak and use it whichever way you want.
If you’re getting it for free, then stick to the rules.
And point #2 is not a lie when you consider that each iPhone has a serial number, it has to be connected via iTunes and the SIM has an IMEI number. It just can’t be tracked reliably via the cell towers.
It’s a free phone. It has conditions. Get over it.
“It’s a free phone. It has conditions. Get over it.”
Indeed. I remember when Hollyhill used to give free computers to it’s staff but had to phrase it as a “loan to own” as there were tax implications. There may be tax issues here, too
Clearly Apple does not want it’s employees selling these phones because that would really saturate the market in Cork, destroying the local retain trade, nor does it want it’s employees breaking an agreement the company signed with O2. The “disciplinary” actions are internal affairs for Apple the company, and nothing to do with European law of phone unlocking etc ( which dont see to have much effect, anyway). Generally companies impose conditions when giving free gifts, and employees are subject to conditions when working for a company which are orthogonal to civil law.
Clearly Apple wants it employees, who are representatives of the company, to not break the agreement it has with O2 in public, and as company employees they should agree to this, or forgo the gift.
Pat your right to a point, but they are getting a free iPhone in the deal.
Not sure i would use the word BlackMail, and I hate to agree with Twenty Major but….
That sounds like a privacy issue, are they tracking private phone calls, data - text messages, it most lightly does not mean this, but it is phrased in a very threating manner…
I think that O2 might be aware if the phone is used on other networks when there is an IMEI check for theft.
Some countries in Europe (Italy and Germany, if I remember correctly,maybe France and/or Austria) have a national cross-operator DB of IMEIs of stolen phones, so that if you report the lost IMEI to your carrier the phone won’t work on any network on that country. (sadly no global EU initiatives)
I don’t know if this applies to Ireland.
So maybe when the phone registers to a network, the operator queries the database with , and maybe (probably) other operators (like O2) might then know that the phone with IMEI X is on network Y.
That, as i explained, wouldn’t work abroad.
This might be how O2 may know if an iPhone (i call it iCabin
) is working on other networks.
Well there irish so its gunna HAVE TO BE IRISH TO BE LEGIBLE bloddy idiots the only reason the phones are on O2 is cuz O2 is the only mobile network with the capacity to succesfully have more than 25% of the population of the uk on 3G or edge at once you morons
OK u get a iphone given to you by the company that makes them and you are asked to only use the carrier that they have licensed to sell them…. and the problem is?
I don’t see how this is blackmail …… i mean you are an employee of the company as part of your employment agreement you would sign a policy saying you would abide by company policy…you signed you are being given equipment…same as software
On the other hand …. phones can be tracked on networks based on unit hardware serial number, phone number, and MAC address.
The employees getting the iphones are getting a discount on the monthly fee they have to pay o2 - 30 per month.
Great title on this post - there would have 4 comments if it said ” Apple gives iphones to staff” . A career as a subeditor beckons Pat.
Its a shame that people get taken in by the behaviour of apple/sony et al.
They like to make a big thing of all their corporate dictates. I am convinced they do this to make you want the product more. when people realise that when htc bring their version of the i-phone out nobody would buy the apple version with all the baggage that comes with it. 2.5g/ edge its outdated.
@paul@yougetitbalk.com: i could not agree with you more. way to attrack hits, paddy.
now let’s see who gets fired for sharing apple internal info…
whats the fuss about? If someone doent want their iPhone give it to me, i would be happy to sign the dotted line for them. Anyway, its O2 that are prob making them do that.
Can you put an o2 sim you already have on bill-pay into the free phones and carry on your original price plan or do you have to sigh up and pay o2 a fortune extra every month?