The Poison Factory (Forbidden Files)

Criticism of Apple Inc.

---

According to company reports and advocacy, Apple's suppliers in China have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records. Forty-nine young men and women were poisoned at the Lianjian Technology factory in Suzhou Industrial Park by the toxic chemical hexane, used to wipe clean the iPad display screens and speed up efficiency. To save money, the factory did not provide proper ventilation during the cleaning process, and workers developed neurological problems, the loss of motor function, numb limbs, and complained of constantly fainting and being overcome by a debilitating fatigue.

An explosion in May at a Foxconn iPad factory in Chengdu, China, killed four people and injured Employees worked excessive overtime—in some cases, seven days a week—and lived in crowded dorms. Some said they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Foxconn's use of students and minors is part of its pursuit of low-cost, flexible labor. When the fallout of the suicides left Foxconn with a labor shortage, the Henan provincial government assisted with the breach.

Students were told that those who failed to comply would not be allowed to graduate.

Interns have become a significant component of Foxconn's labor force, constituting as high as 15 percent of the workforce—or , interns company-wide—at peak times, making it the largest "internship" program in the world. Teachers have been stationed in the factory compound to monitor attendance, and some interns have been as young as 14—by the company's own admission—thereby violating Chinese laws.

The young people are hired through the same labor agencies that hire Foxconn's "dispatch workers," who are deprived of standard benefits and protections. US-based China Labour Watch CLW investigated into conditions at three factories operated by Pegatron, which makes equipment for Apple computers and iPhones, and found that Pegatron hired children under the age of 18—the child laborers worked under the same poor conditions as adult staff. In total, 10, employees aged between 16 and 20 worked in crowded production rooms, performing the same tasks as adults.

Some of the children were paid less, and others did not have their wages paid on time. Apple's considerable commercial success is partly attributable to the outsourcing of its consumer electronics production to Asia. As the principal manufacturer of products and components for Apple, Taiwanese company Foxconn employed 1.

The workers are part of China's "floating population" of million migrants, at the bottom of what Taiwanese tech entrepreneur Stan Shih calls "the smiling curve. Apple, Foxconn and China's workers are stakeholders in high-technology production, but relations between the three are perceived by analysts as imbalanced. Apple was able to capture Particularly notable is that labor costs in China account for the smallest share: While both Apple and Foxconn rely on Chinese workers to perform hour working days to meet demand, the costs of Chinese labor in processing and assembly are insignificant in the overall commercial success of Apple.

Other major component providers—such as Samsung and LG—captured slightly over 14 percent of the value of the iPhone, while the cost of raw materials was just over one-fifth of the total value Foxconn workers typically complete hour work weeks and hour shifts; however, work weeks of up to hours are not unheard of during peak production periods. Foxconn workers typically cannot afford the iPads and iPhones they assemble. In and , the Foxconn factories at the Foxconn City industrial park in Longhua, Shenzhen , China, [89] were heavily criticized in the press, with one source describing conditions as a "white collar prison.

On July 16, , Sun Danyong, a Chinese factory worker employed by Foxconn, committed suicide, after reporting that he lost a prototype model for a fourth generation iPhone. The incident raised questions regarding Apple's secrecy policy and working conditions in their Chinese factories.

An Apple spokesman told reporters that the company was "saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee.

Product details

Apple policy on how it influences the corporate culture of its suppliers is presented in the "Supplier Responsibility Progress Reports" document. In one report, Apple stated:. When social responsibility performance consistently fails to meet Apple expectations, we terminate business.

Given Apple's stated policy at the time of the death, terminating relationships with such suppliers was potentially difficult without incurring huge financial losses. Later in April , four workers committed suicide in a single month in the same factory, signifying the beginning of the "Foxconn suicides" incident. In response to the suicides, Foxconn substantially increased wages for its Shenzhen factory workforce, [] installed suicide-prevention netting, [] brought in Buddhist monks to conduct prayer sessions inside the factory, [] and asked employees to sign no-suicide pledges.

In the late s Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique, " Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich ", which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean.

Free Downloading Books Online The Poison Factory Forbidden Files Epub

In , [Note 1] Ireland, a nation of less than 5 million, was home to more than one-third of Apple's worldwide revenues, according to company filings. Robert Promm, Apple's controller in the mids, called the strategy "the worst-kept secret in Europe". According to a Senate report on the company's offshore tax structure concluded in May , Apple has held billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries to pay little or no taxes to any government by using an unusual global tax structure. Among the findings in the reports are: As part of the Luxembourg Leaks , Apple has been revealed to use the Luxembourg tax haven for tax avoidance.

On August 30, , after a three-year investigation , the EU's competition commissioner concluded that Apple had received "illegal state aid" from Ireland. On 5 November , the Paradise Papers , a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment , revealed that Apple is among the corporations that "avoided billions of dollars in tax" using offshore companies. A great deal of intangible property surfaced in Ireland around the time of an internal Apple reorganization of three Irish subsidiaries.

This is believed to indicate that Apple has taken advantage of a tax incentive known as a capital allowance, which gives Irish companies generous tax breaks for buying intangible property. Following a US Senate investigation which featured testimony by Tim Cook , Ireland announced that henceforth Irish companies would be required to declare tax residency someplace in the world.

Several US multinationals, including Apple subsidiaries, had taken the position that they did not owe taxes anywhere in the world. Apple's law firm, Baker McKenzie, researched island tax havens , asking Appleby officials in numerous jurisdictions to confirm "that an Irish company can conduct management activities Irish companies are required to pay taxes in Ireland, but if they convince authorities that they are "managed and controlled" from abroad, the companies may win an exemption.

On Saturday, December 2, , activists shouting "pay your taxes" carried out public protests at Apple stores in Paris and elsewhere in France. The Danish Consumer Complaints Board reported a fault with Apple's iBook product line and criticized Apple's response to the issue, indicating customer support problems at Apple.

Websites such as AppleDefects. Apple has been repeatedly criticized for its unwillingness to honor its warranties and its concomitant penchant for giving any reason for doing so, no matter how bizarre: Despite the existence of a small number of known viruses and malware designed for Apple products, a report by McAfee found a percent increase in the annual rate of vulnerabilities in the period , compared to Microsoft's products, which saw only 73 percent.

An example of this was a security flaw in Sun Microsystems 's Java, which Sun fixed promptly, while Apple took more than five months to distribute the fix. That is much longer than other companies, and drew sharp criticism from experts and journalists. As David Harley, security expert from anti-virus vendor ESET said, "Any computer user who believes a system is so safe that they don't have to care about security is prime material for exploitation by social engineering.

According to Secunia vulnerability rankings, Apple has led Microsoft in reported security vulnerabilities since , and currently leads all other vendors in reported vulnerabilities for In August , it was publicized that hackers had discovered an exploit involving the Find My iPhone service, which allowed them to brute-force a user's Apple ID and access their iCloud data. The exploit was later believed to have been used as part of an August leak of a large number of private, mostly nude photos of celebrities that had been synced into their iCloud storage.

According to the Italian agency Apple only disclosed its own standard one-year warranty and offered to sell customers AppleCare for one additional year instead of abiding by the law.

Paperback Editions

The program criticized the issue associated with Apple warranty issues in China. The report said, an iPhone always gets an old back cover when being repaired in China. It also states that the warranty period for changed product is only 90 days and the warranty period for Macintosh and iPad are not according to Chinese laws to get warranty in China. Apple claimed that a discussion of how to get other hardware and software to interoperate with the latest iPods infringed their copyrights.

Apple , seeking a declaration of non-infringement and non-circumvention an official response that Apple's intellectual property rights were not being infringed upon. Google has accused Apple alongside Oracle, Microsoft and others of trying to take down Android through patent litigation, rather than innovating and competing with better products and services. In , Apple's Board of Directors recommended shareholders vote against proposals for adopting stronger environmental policies, like eliminating persistent and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals, assessing the phase-out of toxic chemicals such as polyvinyl chloride PVC and brominated flame retardants BFRs , and adopting a stronger e-waste "take-back" and recycling program.

Phil Radford of Greenpeace said "we are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old, polluting energy sources instead of the clean energy available today. In , the Beijing environmental group Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs IPE singled out Apple for criticism, accusing the company's Chinese suppliers of discharging polluted waste and toxic metals into surrounding communities and threatening public health. In June , Apple withdrew its product line from the global registry for greener electronics program, Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool EPEAT , reporting the line no longer qualified for EPEAT's ratings for green certification; [] the San Francisco Department of Environment then notified its agencies that Apple computers no longer qualified for city purchase funds.

Apple provides a section of their website, titled "Apple and the Environment," which includes a timeline of their progression. In , Apple officially released and implemented its environmental policy, while in , a phase-out of lead in batteries began. In , Apple officially became a founding member of the U. During this time, there was also a phase-out of chlorofuorocarbons CFCs in Apple manufacturing, which are substances that deplete the ozone layer. In , there was also a phase-out of nickel-cadmium batteries, while in , PVC in packaging materials was phased out as well.

If one chooses to use ISO The benefits of using ISO While this was a big step for Apple, their concern for environmental well-being has continued to grow.

Seveso disaster

TCO standards involve requirements that cover a variety of issues: For example, environmental demands restrict the use of heavy metals, chlorinated solvents, and other various things. Mainly, products that are labeled must meet these environmental demands. Shortly after, in , all of Apple's manufacturing sites became ISO certified worldwide. This accredited that Apple had a structured environmental management system EMS in order to manage environmental impact of their operations. They also began to purchase percent of electricity for the Austin facility from renewable sources, called Austin's "Green Choice" Power Program.

In , Apple continued to build a more environmentally friendly effort. For example, Apple signed the European Union Code of Conduct on Power Supplies, which encourages manufacturers to design power supplies that minimize energy consumption in "off" mode. In , Apple introduced the unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro, which is made with recyclable aluminum and glass enclosures with arsenic and mercury free displays.

Apple achieved a recycling rate of In , Apple revealed a complete life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, which set a new standard of full environmental disclosure. Apple is the only company of the industry that publishes the environmental footprint of each of its products. Other companies only report on a fraction of their emissions. All of their products became BFR-free with shipping, and mercury-free LED-backlit displays with arsenic-free display glass. In , all displays that were offered by Apple became mercury-free and used arsenic-free display glass.

Also, Apple introduced the Mac mini, which was the world's most energy-efficient desktop computer, because it can operate on 10 watts of electricity which is less power than a single energy-efficient CFL lightbulb. Delivering digital downloads reduce environmental impact of delivering software by eliminating the packaging and transportation. Apple also eliminates restore DVDs that were previously included in Mac product packaging. They introduced their redesigned AirPort Express with an enclosure containing bio-based polymers derived from industrial-grade rapeseed and post-consumer recycled PC-ABS plastic.

Greenpeace [] has criticized Apple for having products that are seen as unfriendly to the environment. In , Greenpeace wrote an article explaining the hazardous materials that have been found in the iPhone, such as vinyl PVC plastic with phthalates , along with brominated compounds. They argued that Sony was removing toxins from their TVs, and that Samsung , Nokia , and Puma had also announced to phase out toxic chemicals in all of their products, yet Apple was not playing their part in the issue. Because of Greenpeace's concern, they published a ranking guide in to improve policies and practices regarding the process of "going green.

2.A. INTRODUCTION

In order to do this, they launched a "Green my Apple" website that was designed to look like Apple's site. The caption on the site was, "I love my Mac. I just wish it came in green. Ultimately, their campaign was successful. Steve Jobs spoke of the company's desire to become greener in Much later, in November , Greenpeace created a ranking of companies in their progression toward greener products and waste management [] Apple moved up to number six out of sixteen , just behind Dell. Apple scored a six due to the company's lack of transparency on GHG emission reporting, clean energy advocacy, further information on its management of toxic chemicals, and details on post-consumer recycled plastic use.

Greenpeace argues that the company can increase its score by setting an ambitious goal for boosting its renewable energy use by Apple also did not plan to phase out antimony or beryllium in their products, but overall, score well on the products criteria.

For example, the Macbook Pro has been known for easy recycling. Apple has been making progress since regarding greener tactics and products. Presently in , Apple states that they achieve to power every Apple facility with energy from renewable sources. They have already achieved this goal at facilities in Austin, Cork, Munich, and at the Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. Leaked National Security Agency documents obtained by The Guardian [] and The Washington Post [] in June included Apple in the list of American companies that allegedly cooperate with PRISM , which authorizes the government to secretly access data of non-American citizens hosted by American companies without a warrant.

Following the leak, government officials acknowledged [] the existence of the program. According to the leaked documents, the NSA has direct access to servers of those companies, and the amount of data collected through the program had been growing fast in years prior to the leak. Apple has denied [] having any knowledge of the program. Apple has often been accused of planned obsolescence — the idea that it deliberately manufactures its devices so that they seem obsolete before this is the case, typically with the intent of selling a 'new and improved' version. According to cyber forensic expert Simon Smith there is "definitely" planned obsolescence in iPhone software - such as an imposed rule in iOS 9 that prevented applications in older phones from accessing external websites — a vital function.

Apple said in December that the reason their older phones run slower one of the criticised changes is because the battery in their phones wear out over time and that their older phones may shut down unexpectedly. In , several officials reported that American spy agencies have learned from human sources inside foreign governments that Chinese and Russian spies were eavesdropping on President Donald Trump 's personal iPhone calls and intercepting communications between foreign officials.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article's lead section does not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.

Apple and Adobe Flash controversy. Think Secret and Apple v. Those set-asides are only advance estimates, but it's pretty strange that each year they're off by many billions of dollars.

As a result, Apple's actual US tax rate is only Retrieved February 12, Archived from the original on January 19, Retrieved March 25, Retrieved June 14, Retrieved 6 May Retrieved December 6, Apple app tax must change". Archived from the original on July 1, Retrieved December 13, Spotify punishing artists that take Apple Music exclusives by limiting promotion Update: Retrieved December 14, Series was designed to cover groups of books generally understood as such see Wikipedia: Like many concepts in the book world, "series" is a somewhat fluid and contested notion.

A good rule of thumb is that series have a conventional name and are intentional creations , on the part of the author or publisher. For now, avoid forcing the issue with mere "lists" of works possessing an arbitrary shared characteristic, such as relating to a particular place. Avoid series that cross authors, unless the authors were or became aware of the series identification eg.

Also avoid publisher series, unless the publisher has a true monopoly over the "works" in question. So, the Dummies guides are a series of works. But the Loeb Classical Library is a series of editions, not of works. Home Groups Talk Zeitgeist. The 12 Days of LT scavenger hunt is going on. Can you solve the clues? I Agree This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and if not signed in for advertising. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

• The Great Reflection
• Maritime Territorial and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Disputes Involving China: Issues for Congress
• the Artist proposes: An inner Revolution
• How to Manage Perimenopause for Women over 50 and Below (1)
• Avec Tolstoï (Littérature Française) (French Edition)
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol. 3
• Er kam aus der Vergangenheit (Romantik- Thriller paranormal) (German Edition)