Apple has sued the well-known leaker Jon Prosser for the alleged theft of trade secrets related to iOS 26. 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 has responded to the lawsuit on X, insisting that Apple’s account is “not how the situation played out on my end,” and claiming to have evidence to that effect. “I did not ‘plot’ to access anyone’s phone. I did not have any passwords. I was unaware of how the information was obtained.”
In its legal filing, Apple asks for both damages and a court order preventing Prosser from disclosing Apple’s trade secrets again. The company adds that while iOS 26 has since been announced to the public, its secrets are still at risk because the development phone “contained other unannounced design elements.”
