Daughters might be the greatest gift, but an Apple engineer is likely not feeling particularly charitable towards his own right now.
An Apple engineer has been “let go” by Apple after his daughter, Brooke Amelia Peterson, filmed a video while visiting her father’s campus in Cupertino. The engineer in question had worked with Apple for four years, building the iPhone RF and wireless circuit design. He had an iPhone X with him, and in the 4 minute video, during which Peterson films herself going shopping and eating during her trip to North California, also filmed bits of it.
Peterson was no Youtube celebrity — she says he barely had any subscribers, but the internet works in mysterious ways. The video went viral in a matter of hours, and was also picked picked by by tech websites.
Peterson says she was contacted by Apple once the video became mainstream, and she immediately deleted it. But the damage was done — Peterson said her father was “let go” by Apple in a new, tearful video this week. “I made the video for fun, because I love making YouTube videos. I had no subscribers,” Peterson said. But Apple didn’t think it was all Peterson’s fault — her dad was clearly aware that she was filming the video, which showed closeups of the phone and its apps. Apple rules prohibit filming in its public areas, including the cafeteria.
This isn’t the first time a child has cost their parent a high-profile tech job thanks to being overly excited at unreleased products. A Microsoft engineer had previously been fired after his son shared pictures of a yet unreleased XBox 360. And Apple is notoriously stringent about its security policies, regularly firing employees and supply chain vendors who leak its products.
Peterson, though, says things are alright between her and her dad, and neither of them bears any grudge towards Apple. But the loss of one of the most desirable jobs in tech has to rankle, caused by a beloved daughter or otherwise.