[endymi0n]

I find it harmful to jump to a conclusion too early and blame the victim. Forcing someone to merge these accounts can take many forms and Apple has thousands of different teams and managers.

Even if there was zero explicit or implicit force in place, the circumstances can still be non-obvious.

If you get handed a MacBook, you're basically forced to work with an iCloud account. And the fact that making the mistake of using your own one in the high-pressure situation of a first day in a massive company is apparently a non-reversible decision that hands over data that was created before and outside the employment definitely points towards Apple abusing their position of power here.

[mlyle]

> hands over data that was created before and outside the employment definitely points towards Apple abusing their position of power here.

Trust me, Apple legal would rather not dig through your personal information to find nuggets to hand to opposing counsel during discovery.

But if there's work information in your personal account, and Apple is legally compelled to go through accounts with work information as part of discovery... what's going to happen?

[labawi]

People will call them awful and disrespectful, for not providing explicit instructions to use a new or work account, and warning everything in the account may be impounded.

[rmah]

New hires at Apple get multiple hours of training in information security and other HR policy. There is warning. It's just ignored by lots of folks.

[teakettle42]

> I find it harmful to jump to a conclusion too early and blame the victim.

The only victims I can possibly see here are those employees that had to review nude images inappropriately stored on a work computer.

Apple absolutely does not require that you use your personal iCloud account on your work machines, and any professional should know that it is inappropriate to browse, share, or store nude photos (of anyone) on company-owned hardware, and should never have placed their colleagues in a position of having to deal with those images.

[Broken_Hippo]

Everyone has days of lax judgement: Excitement over a new job can do this. Anxiety, depression, a sick child, yourself being sick, recent marriage, a big move, and a slew of other things can do this.

Apple should be in the position to instruct new employees to create an icloud account for work alongside explaining that the computer they are handed must be turned in at times. The employees aren't the only ones with responsibility here.

[teakettle42]

> Anxiety, depression, a sick child, yourself being sick, recent marriage, a big move, and a slew of other things can do this.

Maintaining a modicum of personal responsibility is not asking for very much here.

In fact, I’d say it’s the bare minimum professionalism requires.

You don’t own your company-provided equipment. This is explained by Apple, in addition to being a patently obvious fact.

If you personally choose to misuse company equipment, that is something you are personally responsible for.

Adults trying to shift blame back to Apple is a remarkable abdication of a simple responsibility. If they cannot exercise good judgement in such a straight-forward case, I question whether they can be expected to operate professionally in the work-force at all.

[ed_elliott_asc]

I’ve been given a MacBook on the first day at work, there was zero chance I would log in with my own iCloud ID - I created a new one.

[OnlyMortal]

Correct. Don’t use work computers for personal stuff and don’t use personal stuff for work.

It’s part of the on-boarding at my company (which happens to have formerly been at the same location Apple’s HQ is now).