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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

I'm pretty sure people are in fact allowed to bring cameras onto the Apple campus, and, from what I can tell, there are no metal detectors or bag searches of any sort there. My knowledge is secondhand, but I'm inclined to believe that much of this article is BS.

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In Israel, because there is a fear from terrorists, before you go into any shop, restaurant, mall, or university, your bag is searched (for ~30 seconds) and sometimes a metal detector is used (a hand-held one). I know nothing about Apple HQ, but it would be trivial to set something like this up.

Unrelated, but they (Gizmodo) shouldn't have used the word 'gestapo' or anything else related to nazis.

And it's not just one off-handed comparison - the article goes on and on about it. It really trivializes the hardships of people who couldn't just leave and get another job, and where the stakes involved torture and death.

Not only that, but people opt to work at Apple, some of them not just in spite of the secrecy but because of it; Apple is super-sensitive because what their people work on tends to really matter in the marketplace.

I remember seeing a photo of an iPhone developer in front of a huge banner with a screenshot of his app inside of an Apple building on their campus, and it was labeled something like "Secret photo of me in front of banner with our app!" or something of that nature, so it's a possibility that they have restrictions on cameras.

They have a restriction on taking pictures of things you shouldn't (which includes most of the campus), but they don't have restrictions on cameras.

In addition to there being no written rule against it, I've openly and regularly hauled digital video and still cameras across campus without ever hearing any complaint from the omnipresent security guards.

How do you think people work on iPhoto/iMovie/FCP? Check out cameras from a locked facility?

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