Four male employees from the Carindale Apple Store in Queensland have been fired after a photo ring scandal was exposed.
The Courier Mail reports the staff were apparently caught stealing explicit photos from female customers and sharing them amongst each other.
An unnamed worker told The Courier Mail about what happened.
“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,” they said.
“Everyone feels uncomfortable and the female staff don’t know how to feel because the leadership won’t tell staff who is involved.”
The Australian privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim informed The Brisbane Times that his office is investigating the issue further with Apple.
“This is an important reminder that all organisations that collect and manage personal information need to embed a culture of privacy and ensure employees understand their responsibilities,” he said.
“Organisations must also take reasonable steps to protect the personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.”
Apple has also released a statement, saying that they are looking into the matter further.
“Apple believe in treating everyone equally and with respect and we do not tolerate behaviour that goes against our values,” it read.
“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.”
They also released another statement on Thursday, saying that there is “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.”
