Girl’s Hands-On iPhone X Video Got Her Dad Fired from Apple

An Apple engineer was reportedly dismissed from his position on the company’s iPhone development team last week, after it was discovered that his daughter’s iPhone X hands-on video went viral on YouTube.

Brooke Amelia Peterson, the daughter of [former] Apple engineer, Ken Bauer, posted a vlog to her YouTube channel early last week in which she paid a visit to her dad’s workplace at Apple HQ. It was there that Peterson got the chance to spend some (unauthorized) hands-on time with Apple’s unreleased iPhone X flagship.

In a purely unfortunate turn of events, Peterson was back just four days later with another impassioned vlog post, this time claiming that her father was fired from his position at Apple as the result of her video-gone-viral, which quickly circulated the web last week and has been viewed some 1.5 million times on YouTube so far.

Peterson explains in her follow-up vlog post that her dad “violated an Apple company rule” by allowing her to film its then-unreleased iPhone X on the company’s campus, which is, in fact, a clear violation of Apple’s policy. According to The Verge, after discovering the video’s presence last week, Apple asked Peterson to remove it; however by that time it had already spread across the web like wildfire.

Interestingly, while filming on Apple’s campus may very well be strictly prohibited, it’s worth noting that Peterson’s post appears to have revealed a bit more than just the iPhone X, itself — which likely reinforced the dismissal of her father. It may have seemed like an innocent “iPhone X hands-on,” as Peterson’s enthusiasm might suggest; however, whether she was aware of it or not, her video also showcased what appears to be some Apple employee-only QR codes, in addition to an open Notes app which may have included codenames and details of some unreleased Apple products.

Of course, while Bauer’s dismissal might seem a bit extreme for his daughter’s naive crime, this wouldn’t be the first of such high-profile dismissals over pre-release leaks. According to an Engadget report, back in 2005 a Microsoft engineer was dismissed from his post after it was discovered that his son posted pictures of the Xbox 360 console ahead of its official release.

Bauer had allegedly worked at Apple on its iPhone RF team for the last four years. Apple has yet to respond to multiple requests for comment on Bauer’s dismissal.