Apple Store employees in Queensland, Australia, are reportedly in hot water after a photo-sharing and customer “rating” ring was uncovered by their fellow employees.
Courier-Mail reports that four male employees have been fired from the Apple Store location when it was discovered that they had engaged in a female-rating game, and had been covertly snapping photos of female customers and even their own co-workers.
“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,” according to a statement given by one Apple Store staff member to Courier-Mail.
An HR representative has also reportedly been brought in to gauge the scope of the incident. Apple itself responded to the report thusly:
We are investigating a violation of Apple’s business conduct policy at our store in Carindale, where several employees have already been terminated as a result of our findings.
Based on our investigation thus far, we have seen no evidence that customer data or photos were inappropriately transferred or that anyone was photographed by these former employees. We have met with our store team to let them know about the investigation and inform them about the steps Apple is taking to protect their privacy.
Apple believes in treating everyone equally and with respect, and we do not tolerate behaviour that goes against our values
It would appear the only piece of good news to come out of Apple’s investigation is that no photos were actually stolen from customers’ iPhones for use in the creepy photo-sharing game.