Apple accuses former employee of stealing Vision Pro secrets, claims he lied before joining Snap

Apple

Apple has filed a lawsuit against a former senior design engineer, accusing him of stealing confidential Vision Pro headset research just before taking up a new role at Snap. According to a report by The Verge, the case has been lodged in California’s Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 24. As per the report, Apple alleges that Di Liu downloaded thousands of proprietary files from Apple’s internal systems to his personal cloud storage in the days leading up to his resignation.

According to the complaint, Liu told Apple he was leaving the company due to health reasons — but failed to disclose that he had accepted a position on Snap’s product design team. Apple says this misrepresentation prevented it from triggering standard offboarding protocols, including an immediate revocation of system access for employees heading to competitors.

Apple claims Liu took advantage of this oversight to copy a “massive volume” of sensitive materials, including documents related to Vision Pro’s design and development. Log data reportedly shows that Liu carefully selected, renamed, and reorganised folders before transferring them, and later attempted to cover his tracks by deleting files from his Apple-issued laptop.

While Apple admits it cannot determine the full scope of the data Liu downloaded, it argues that there is enough overlap with Snap’s AR Spectacles project to raise concerns about potential misuse. “Mr. Liu’s actions were deliberate,” Apple stated, adding that it is seeking financial damages and a court order to recover the stolen files.

Notably, Snap is not named in the lawsuit. In a statement, the company said it had reviewed Apple’s allegations and found “no reason to believe they are related to this individual’s employment or conduct at Snap.”