An Apple Store employee has lost his job after texting a customer’s ‘extremely personal’ photograph to himself.
Gloria Fuentes visited the store in Bakersfield, California to have her iPhone screen repaired on November 4, after having first removed some personal data.
The unnamed employee allegedly then proceeded to scroll through her pictures, sending a private photograph to himself that had been meant for her boyfriend.
While at the store, Gloria noticed the employee had been ‘messing about’ with her phone for quite a while – asking for her passcode twice – but hadn’t thought anything of it at the time.
Gloria realised something was up after she returned home and began to text someone. It was then she noticed a message had been sent to an unsaved number, with the disturbing truth quickly becoming apparent.
Opening up about her horrifying discovery on Facebook, Gloria wrote:
I open it and instantly wanted to cry!!! This guy went through my gallery and sent himself one of my extremely personal pictures that I took for my boyfriend and it had my geolocation on so he also knows where I live!!!
And this picture was from almost a year ago so he had to have scrolled up for a while to get to that picture being that I have over 5,000 pics in my phone!!!! I could not express how disgusted I felt and how long I cried after I saw this!!
Gloria returned to the store to confront the worker, who admitted the unsaved number was his but claimed he didn’t know how the photo ended up getting sent. After speaking to the store manager, Gloria was informed the matter would be looked into.
In her Facebook post, Gloria revealed she would be pressing charges, and expressed concerns that she potentially hadn’t been the only woman to have had her privacy invaded by the worker:
I’m sharing this because iPhones are like a must have for teens now and I could just imagine that I’m not the only person he’s done this to and what if he’s done this to someone’s teenage daughter or even any other woman at all!!
I have no idea if he sent more than the picture that he forgot to delete and I have no clue wth he’s going to do with them!!!
This makes me cry thinking about it but I think he needs to be held accountable and anyone else that has had him work on their phone should be aware of the fact that there’s a possibility that he’s done this to them!!
Apple thanked Gloria for bringing the ‘deeply concerning situation’ to their attention, and revealed the employee was ‘no longer associated’ with the tech company, The Washington Post reported.
The statement read:
Apple immediately launched an internal investigation and determined that the employee acted far outside the strict privacy guidelines to which we hold all Apple employees.
The Bakersfield Police Department have reportedly confirmed, as of Tuesday, November 13, that officers were continuing to investigate the incident.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues, and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.