Apple (AAPL) Using Confidentiality Agreements To Keep iPod Problems Secret

There is no end to the lengths to which Apple will go to keep overheating problems with its iPod under wraps.

The Times reports that“Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child’s iPod music player exploded and the family sought a refund from the company.”

Apple has been accused of trying to hide problems with the iPod and recently the Consumer Product Safety Commission released 800 pages of documentation about problems with the device.

The latest incident of Apple trying to keep trouble with the media player silent happened in the UK.  The family in question contacted the huge hardware company and talked to a number of people only to find out that they could get a refund for the iPod in exchange for signing a confidentiality agreement.

The issue of iPod malfuncitons seem to be growing. Each time Apple tries to silence one party that has had trouble with the device, another pops up. The company certainly has to be concerned about a recall, which would be costly both in terms of direct expenditures to repair or replace machines and indirectly in terms of what it would do to Apple’s image.

And, at Apple, image is a very big part of the reason the company has done as well as it has.

Douglas A. McIntyre