Apple is suing leaker Jon Prosser and a codefendant for misappropriation of commerce secrets and techniques associated to YouTube movies from earlier this yr that depicted mockups of iOS 26 (which was, on the time, anticipated to be known as iOS 19). Within the go well with, which Apple filed at a district court docket within the Northern District of California, the corporate claims Prosser and Michael Ramacciotti "conspired to interrupt into an Apple worker’s improvement iPhone to take Apple’s commerce secrets and techniques."
Per the submitting, which was obtained by MacRumors, Prosser had promised to "discover out a manner for [Ramacciotti] to get cost" if his codefendant was capable of entry the event iPhone of his buddy Ethan Lipnik, who labored on software program designs at Apple. Apple claims Ramacciotti was staying with Lipnik and waited till he left for an prolonged time period, utilizing a location-tracking software to verify of that. Ramacciotti is claimed to have gained entry to the iPhone and made a FaceTime name to Prosser to indicate options and designs from iOS 26.
Prosser allegedly used a display capturing software to file the video name after which shared the footage with others with a purpose to create mockups he utilized in his movies (Prosser has mentioned that Apple makes use of identifiers in in-development variations of its software program to assist it pinpoint leakers, and recreating the renders is meant to guard them). A kind of individuals who noticed the footage is claimed to have acknowledged Lipnik’s condo and to have knowledgeable him of that.
In January, Prosser printed a video on his Entrance Web page Tech YouTube channel depicting a render of an iOS 26 Digicam app redesign that seemed comparatively near the true deal. He later confirmed off mockups of the redesigned Messages app and the Liquid Glass design language Apple is switching to this yr.
Apple terminated Lipnik’s employment for failing to guard confidential data. Per the go well with, Lipnik mentioned that Ramacciotti "typically hung out at his house, generally staying for the weekend, and observing his patterns and safety protocols for his units." Apple says it found the alleged commerce secret theft from an nameless tip and that it additionally has a voice observe that Ramacciotti despatched to Lipnik to apologize and declare that Prosser was behind the scheme.
The corporate claims the event iPhone in query hosted a "important quantity of further Apple commerce secret data that has not but been publicly disclosed. It added that it doesn’t understand how a lot of this data Prosser and Ramacciotti obtained.
Apple is searching for an injunction directing Prosser and Ramacciotti "to not make use of or disclose Apple’s confidential, proprietary and commerce secret data to 3rd events with out its written consent" and to destroy any such materials they possess. The corporate can also be searching for damages and is requesting a jury trial.
Prosser responded to the lawsuit on X, claiming that "This isn’t how issues went down on my finish. Wanting ahead to having the ability to communicate to Apple about it." Prosser adopted up by saying, "For the file: I definitely didn’t 'plot' to entry anybody’s telephone and was unaware of the state of affairs taking part in out."
For the file: I definitely didn’t “plot” to entry anybody’s telephone and was unaware of the state of affairs taking part in out.
— jon prosser (@jon_prosser) July 18, 2025
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-sues-leaker-jon-prosser-for-allegedly-stealing-ios-26-info-from-an-employee-123019259.html?src=rss