Wikipedia

Ashley Gjøvik

Ashley Gjøvik is an American program manager and activist who is known for her whistleblowing and labor complaints against Apple Inc. Gjøvik was terminated in 2021 by Apple for allegedly leaking confidential intellectual property, which she denied. Gjøvik alleged her firing was retaliation for speaking out against the company about sexism, employee privacy, and vapor intrusion at a Sunnyvale, California, Apple office on a Superfund site.

Ashley Gjøvik
Headshot of Ashley Gjovik
Born1985 or 1986 (age 37–38)[1]
OccupationProgram manager
Known forLegal complaints against Apple Inc.

Education and career

Gjøvik studied literature, with an intent to get a Master of Fine Arts, before joining Apple in 2015.[2] In 2016, she became an engineering program manager for Apple working out of their Sunnyvale office.[3][4] She spent several months on paid leave between 2020–2021.[5][6][a] She was terminated in September 2021.[4] From September–December 2021, she worked as an intern at an immigration clinic that helps asylum seekers.[1]

Gjøvik studied public international law and human rights at Santa Clara University.[1][2]

Labor issues and concerns at Apple

After raising concerns internally with Apple, Gjøvik began speaking openly on Twitter and to press. Her allegations against Apple include mishandling of environmental concerns, violations of employee privacy, harassment, and retaliation.[9][3] Gjøvik said that after raising concerns internally and speaking publicly about her concerns, she was retaliated against repeatedly, and was reassigned.[3] Gjøvik said her role was embedded with executives and that she made $386,000 in 2021, which made it harder for her to speak out.[2]

Environmental health and safety concerns

See also: List of Superfund sites in California and TRW Microwave Superfund

In 2020, Gjøvik wrote an essay for the San Francisco Bay View about a mystery illness she said she experienced while living in a Santa Clara, California apartment complex on a Superfund site. She attributed her symptoms to exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the ground through a process called vapor intrusion.[10][5] She spent six months between February and September 2020 on short-term disability.[5] In June 2024, Gjøvik wrote on Mastodon, "In 2020, I nearly died from mysterious industrial chemical exposure at my apartment. ... Later, in 2023, I discovered my employer was dumping toxic waste into the apartment windows from their Skunkworks semiconductor fab next-door," with an annotated map from Apple's facility at 3250 Scott Blvd in Santa Clara to her apartment building.[11] The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report about the facility, done at Gjøvik's request, included potential violations because some items were incorrectly labeled, misdated, or not properly tracked.[11] Most of the issues were marked as resolved.[11]

On March 17, 2021, Gjøvik received an email from Apple's environmental health and safety team notifying staff of forthcoming vapor intrusion testing at her office (Stewart 1), a Sunnyvale building on a Superfund site managed by Northrop Grumman,[3] which she said sent off "alarm bells."[10] Gjøvik said she had fainted at work and did not know why, leading her to question Apple about prior testing and potential health issues from "chemical exposure." She says she was told not to discuss her concerns with other employees and was subsequently harassed and humiliated.[1][12][3] Gjøvik requested Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) accommodations to avoid working at the office, but refused to fill out a medical release form to allow Apple to access her medical records and never received the accommodation.[13] A study in 2019 determined the issues had been addressed,[1] but she believed employees were exposed to carcinogenic fumes through cracks in the floor.[14]

Harassment and discrimination

See also: AppleToo

Gjøvik alleged that Apple pressured her into revealing details of sexual harassment she experienced after she mentioned the incident in an unrelated meeting with a member of Apple's human resources department. She said that Apple took no action related to her report except to reveal her to the employee she accused.[1]

In July 2021, Apple investigated Gjøvik's allegations of sex discrimination from a male manager.[6] On August 2, 2021, following the closure of the investigation finding no wrongdoing, she wrote on Twitter about the experience, "Wanted to share: #Apple employee relations confirmed this #tonepolicing is totally ok feedback for me to get from my #bigtech #male leaders & not #sexist. As this investigation rolls on, I've decided to start Tweeting the stuff they say is 'ok.' I mean, they did say it was ok?" In the tweet, she attached a screenshot of feedback from a manager who wrote that he "didn't hear you going up an octave at the end of your statements" and that she "came across as much more authoritative." In a follow up tweet, she wrote, "Someone needs to give me a Purple Heart."[15][6][4]

In an August 4, 2021 interview with The Verge, Gjøvik stated, "I asked them to mitigate the hostile work environment while they investigate, and they initially offered me EAP therapy and medical leave... I added that if there was no other option they could give me paid administrative leave." She was then placed on the second of two paid administrative leaves[a] for the duration of the re-investigation of her claims. She also said, "implied they did not want me on Slack ... They also implied they didn't want me to meet one-on-one with other women at the company."[6]

Employee privacy concerns

On August 30, 2021, Gjøvik and other Apple employees said they were discouraged from keeping separate phones for personal and professional use and were expected to help test software with informed consent.[1][9] Program manager Janneke Parrish also said this in an interview.[16] In 2018, Gjøvik's engineering team was involved in a lawsuit and her work devices were placed under legal hold. When she asked if she could delete nude photographs on the phone, she said the lawyers said no. Gjøvik also spoke about data privacy concerns of internal tools such as a bug tracking tool called "Radar" and an app for testing Face ID, "Glimmer."[b] The app took photos and brief videos when it sensed a face. She described Glimmer as "spyware" and expressed concern about the inability to delete a 2019 bug report she filed of a selfie she took in bed. Apple instructs its employees not to upload sensitive, confidential, or private data to work tools.[1][9]

In September 2021, Gjøvik criticized Apple's employee privacy policy, which she said states that workers have no expectation of privacy when using a personal device for Apple business. She said the implication of possible employee surveillance under the policies led her to walk around her apartment and unplug all of her electronics and remove all of her personal information off of Apple's servers.[18]

Intellectual property matter and firing

On September 9, 2021, a member of Apple's human resources team contacted her, asking to speak about "a sensitive Intellectual Property matter". Gjøvik replied that she would speak to them, but that the conversation would need to be captured in writing, and she would forward it to the NLRB.[1][4] Apple replied, "Since you have chosen not to participate in the discussion ... we will move forward with the information that we have" and suspended her employee access. She was formally fired in a third email later that day which stated she had "engaged in conduct that warrants termination of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of Apple policies". The violations claimed by Apple were that she had "disclosed confidential product-related information in violation of Apple policies" and that she had "failed to cooperate and to provide accurate and complete information during the Apple investigatory process".[1][4] Gjøvik denied these allegations, referring to the termination as retaliation for speaking out and filing complaints about the company with multiple agencies.[7][19][20]

On September 15, 2021, Gjøvik received an email from O'Melveny & Myers law firm, on behalf of Apple, with a request to delete two tweets they said violated the confidentially agreement she signed. The tweets were of a photograph of her automatically captured by the Face ID testing app Glimmer and screenshots of an employee email soliciting 3D ear scans related to AirPods development. Gjøvik complied with the request to remove the tweets, but argued via her lawyer that the material she shared was not labeled confidential, did not contain anything proprietary or secret, and that the photograph of her could not reasonably be argued to be copyrighted by Apple.[1]

Gjøvik filed numerous complaints with at least 11 agencies. She asked for reinstatement if the agencies find that Apple fired her unlawfully.[2] She filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit that included claims of whistleblower retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Dodd-Frank Acts in September 2023.[21]

Labor board complaints

See also: Apple and unions

On August 26, 2021, Gjøvik filed a charge with the NLRB, alleging retaliation as well as harassment by a manager and forced administrative leave.[22]

Following her termination and subsequent retaliation charges, Gjøvik filed two additional charges with the NLRB against Apple in October 2021 following news of a company-wide memo from Tim Cook sent to employees on September 21, 2021.[23] The memo was criticized for conflating product leaks with employee activism around workplace conditions, and for including the line, "people who leak confidential information do not belong here," which some interpreted as threatening.[24] Gjøvik alleged that the memo violated the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, and additionally challenged several policies in the employee handbook that she said illegally inhibit staff from exercising their federally-protected rights to talk to the press, discuss wages, and post on social media.[25][26] She, and some other legal professionals, believe that this particular charge, if prosecuted, could overturn a "Trump Era" precedent governing workplace policies involving Boeing from December 2017.[26] She said she hopes to disrupt the company's culture of secrecy.[23]

On January 30, 2023, the NLRB found merit to five charges, two of which were brought by Gjøvik,[27] that "various work rules, handbook rules, and confidentiality rules" imposed by Apple and its executives "tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees" from exercising their legal rights to collective action and to speak with the media.[12][14][28] The NLRB has not yet ruled in response to Gjøvik's individual charges.[14]

Whistleblower complaints

In August 2021, Gjøvik filed a whistleblower tip with the SEC related to the Superfund site at Stewart 1 and a potential conflict of interest with Ronald Sugar, an Apple board member and former CEO of the site's owner Northrop Grumman.[3][29] After she was terminated, Gjøvik filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor and OSHA.[3][29] Gjøvik said she "kicked-out" the SOX complaint, alleging the DOL engaged in obstruction and extortion, adding it instead to a civil lawsuit. A California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement complaint was also moved to the lawsuit.[21]

RICO lawsuit

On September 7, 2023, Gjøvik filed a lawsuit against Apple under RICO and whistleblower retaliation under SOX and Dodd–Frank. The lawsuit alleged a wide variety of violations, including wire fraud, mail fraud, and securities fraud, as well as state level bribery and extortion.[21]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b An August leave was described as "indefinite" by The Verge, but they and Gjøvik both say it was for the duration of the investigation. Gjøvik later describes this leave as a forced suspension.[4][7][8]
  2. ^ Gjøvik refers to Glimmer by its former code name "Gobbler."[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cameron, Dell (October 14, 2021). "Apple Wanted Her Fired. It Settled On an Absurd Excuse". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on October 15, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Burton, Lucy (April 17, 2022). "Apple whistleblower Ashley Gjøvik: 'My life is a goddamn nightmare now'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g McGee, Patrick; Temple-West, Patrick (December 13, 2021). "Apple faces probe over whether it retaliated against whistleblower". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 26, 2022. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Schiffer, Zoe (September 9, 2021). "Apple fires senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik for allegedly leaking information". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Gjøvik, Ashley (March 26, 2021). "I thought I was dying: My apartment was built on toxic waste". San Francisco Bay View. Archived from the original on January 16, 2024. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Schiffer, Zoe (August 4, 2021). "Apple places female engineering program manager on administrative leave after tweeting about sexism in the office". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 4, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Browning, Kellen (December 13, 2021). "The Labor Department is investigating Apple's treatment of employees". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  8. ^ Snider, Mike (October 17, 2021). "Fired co-leader of #AppleToo worker activist group to file federal complaints". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved April 25, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Schiffer, Zoe (August 30, 2021). "Apple cares about privacy, unless you work at Apple". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  10. ^ a b Bright, Martin (December 15, 2021). ""Apple poisoned me: physically, mentally, spiritually" - Ashley Gjøvik, who was fired by the tech giant after blowing the whistle on toxic waste under her office, says her fight will go on". Index on Censorship. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c "Whistleblower claims to have nearly died because of illegal chemical exposure from Apple". AppleInsider. June 24, 2024. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
  12. ^ a b Eidelson, Josh (January 30, 2023). "Apple Executives Violated Worker Rights, US Labor Officials Say". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
  13. ^ Schiffer, Zoe (September 30, 2021). "Apple's fortress of secrecy is crumbling from the inside". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  14. ^ a b c Silberling, Amanda (January 31, 2023). "Labor officials found that Apple execs infringed on workers' rights". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
  15. ^ Bell, Karissa (August 5, 2021). "Senior Apple employee alleges sexism at work, is put on indefinite leave". Engadget. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  16. ^ Schiffer, Zoë (October 16, 2021). "A brief chat with the fired #AppleToo organizer". The Verge. Retrieved June 17, 2024.
  17. ^ Lomas, Natasha (April 11, 2022). "Ex-Apple employee takes Face ID privacy complaint to Europe". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved May 30, 2024.
  18. ^ Roach, Sarah (September 20, 2021). "Worker surveillance is making employees miserable". Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  19. ^ Hays, Kali (September 16, 2021). "Apple hit by another NLRB charge for firing senior manager who complained of harassment". Business Insider. Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  20. ^ Fried, Ina (December 14, 2021). "Labor Department digs into complaint against Apple". Axios. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  21. ^ a b c Owen, Malcolm (September 9, 2023). "Apple faces RICO lawsuit from ex employee whistleblower". AppleInsider. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  22. ^ Savov, Vlad; Eidelson, Josh (September 10, 2021). "Apple Fires Manager Who Complained; She Gains Right to Sue". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 10, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  23. ^ a b Eidelson, Josh (October 12, 2021). "Apple CEO's Anti-Leak Edict Broke Law, Ex-Employee Alleges". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on October 13, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  24. ^ Schiffer, Zoe (September 22, 2021). "Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong at Apple, according to leaked memo". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  25. ^ Towey, Hannah. "Former Apple employee alleges a Tim Cook email saying leakers 'do not belong' at the company violates worker-protection laws". Business Insider. Archived from the original on June 17, 2024. Retrieved June 17, 2024.
  26. ^ a b Mak, Aaron (October 27, 2021). "How Leakers Get Dealt With in Silicon Valley". Slate. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  27. ^ McGee, Patrick (January 30, 2023). "Apple violated work rules, according to US labour watchdog". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2024. Retrieved June 17, 2024.
  28. ^ Mickle, Tripp (January 31, 2023). "Regulators Find Apple's Secrecy Violates Workers' Rights - After a yearlong investigation, a federal labor board determined that the tech giant's rules interfere with employees' right to organize". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  29. ^ a b Bubenik, Timothy W. (2021). "Apple Accused of Osha Retaliation Despite the Lack of an Osha Complaint". Martindale-Hubbell. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
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