Apple sues leaker Jon Prosser, accuses him of stealing iOS 26 trade secrets

iOS 26
Apple has filed a lawsuit against prominent leaker Jon Prosser, accusing him of stealing trade secrets related to iOS 26. The company alleges Prosser leaked details of iOS 26’s design prior to its WWDC announcement.
Dominic Preston for TheVerge:
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Prosser has been accused of tasking another man, Michael Ramacciotti, with secretly accessing an Apple employee’s development iPhone and using that information to report on Apple’s planned changes in the then-unannounced iOS 26.
According to the lawsuit, Apple claims that Prosser offered Ramacciotti “money or a future job opportunity” in exchange for access to a company phone belonging to his friend Ethan Lipnik, an Apple software engineer working on iOS. Ramacciotti allegedly learnt Lipnik’s iPhone passcode, used “location-tracking” to determine when he’d be away from home for an extended period, and then accessed the iPhone running a development version of the mobile OS. Apple says that Ramacciotti showed the software to Prosser over a video call, which Prosser recorded, shared with others, and used to create renders of the new designs.
Apple says it found out the details of what happened in April from an anonymous email from someone who claimed to have seen Prosser’s recording of the call and recognized Lipnik’s apartment. The company also claims to have a voice note sent by Ramacciotti to Lipnik, apologizing for the incident and claiming that the subterfuge was Prosser’s idea, which Lipnik in turn provided to Apple. Lipnik was fired by Apple for failing to properly follow its policies around securing unreleased software.

Prosser responded to the lawsuit via X:

For the record: This is not how the situation played out on my end. Luckily have receipts for that.
I did not “plot” to access anyone’s phone. I did not have any passwords. I was unaware of how the information was obtained.
Looking forward to speaking with Apple on this. https://t.co/NSUlJPMbld
— jon prosser (@jon_prosser) July 18, 2025

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MacDailyNews Take: Ay yi yi.

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