An Apple employee claims that her employer, where she has worked for more than six years, has threatened to terminate her because of a popular TikTok video she made that offers simple, commonsense advice on what to do if your iPhone is stolen.
On TikTok, the employee, Paris Campbell, has about 500,000 followers and more than 17.7 million likes as of this writing. Campbell never revealed to the public that she worked for Apple prior to a video last week; instead, she frequently published stand-up comedy performances and reaction videos to amusing and eccentric content uploaded to the app.
Following the theft of their iPhone and subsequent messages from the perpetrators threatening to sell their personal information on the black market, Campbell responded to another user's TikTok a week ago. With the help of Find My, the victim discovered the whereabouts of their iPhone in China.
The crooks specifically urged the victim in their mails to do so in order to get around Activation Lock by removing the stolen iPhone from their Apple ID account. It is strongly advised against doing so because doing so would make the device useful and would only benefit crooks.
"I can't tell you precisely how I know this knowledge, but I can tell you for the previous six years I've been a certified hardware engineer for a certain corporation that likes to talk a lot about fruit," Campbell said in the opening of her video response to the concerned victim. Campbell continues by emphasising the need to avoid detaching the iPhone from the Apple ID and by describing Activation Lock.
As a reminder, Activation Lock forces users to enter their Apple ID password to unlock their iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch after it has been deleted if it is still linked to an account. The iPhone in this instance is completely worthless without the Apple ID password or the password used to unlock the device previously.
In her video, Campbell only offers the victim some helpful advice and reassurance that, despite the criminals' claims to the contrary, they do not possess sensitive information. Campbell advises the victim to disregard the messages as he wraps up the video. At the time of writing, the video had received over 7.4 million views.
Only a few days after publishing that video, Campbell published a second video outlining the events. She said that she received a call from her manager informing her that she had violated Apple policy by disclosing her employment status in public. However, Apple's policy merely mandates that employees uphold Apple's reputation and image in their online presence and does not prohibit them from openly identifying themselves as Apple employees.
Numerous Apple engineers openly identify as company employees on Twitter. They frequently engage with the public and tweet about how excited they are about the work they have been doing since the announcement.
In her follow-up video, Campbell stated, "If you ask me, boosting the public's confidence in Apple's security is not something that makes the firm seem terrible, especially when it reaches 5 million people. I've never truly identified myself as an Apple employee until this video, if we want to be technical," she added.
Campbell agrees with her management that Apple does not pay her to "create TikTok videos," claiming that she only does it for fun in her free time. "Although I wasn't hired by Apple to create TikTok videos, it turns out I'm quite excellent at it. I guess what I'm best at is talking about your products and technology in general and how people can use it in their daily lives "Added Campbell.
"Perhaps instead of criticising me, you should be reading the comments and seeing how many people are appreciating me," she said. "I currently work for Apple and would very much like to continue doing so. I have been a fantastic employee for the past almost six years, and that is clear from the fact that I have consistently surpassed expectations in my reviews."
"Apple used to like when people performed things that were incredibly bizarre and unconventional. This is undoubtedly bizarre and unconventional, "Campbell says in the final line of her video. Campbell's professional situation has not changed since she published the follow-up video, and she has not commented on the uproar. Apple has been contacted by us for comment.
