Recently, a set of high-definition interior pictures of Xiaomi SU7 have been circulating on the internet. It is understood that these pictures were not officially released, but were leaked and released by the media.
On March 21, Autohome issued a statement to explain the incident of an employee leaking photos of Xiaomi Auto SU7’s interior, and said that the involved employee had been fired. Autohome said that on March 16, it was invited to participate in the national media test drive event of Xiaomi Auto SU7. Before the event, an employee named Shi signed the “Confidential Commitment Letter”. During the appreciation and shooting, Shi privately forwarded the unreleased interior photos to a colleague named Li without reporting to the company and obtaining permission. Then, on March 18, Li posted the photos on his personal social media account without authorization, which led to the spread.
After learning about this matter, Autohome attached great importance to it, had sincere communication with Xiaomi Auto, cooperated to eliminate the impact of the event, and immediately required Li to delete the posted content. At the same time, a special investigation team was established to investigate and verify the relevant personnel and the circumstances of the incident, and promised to fulfill all the泄密 liability for breach of contract. After confirmation, the actions of the two involved employees seriously violated the confidentiality obligations that employees should fulfill and the “Employee Handbook of Autohome”. According to the company’s regulations, employees Shi and Li were given the punishment of dismissal, and internal education on professional ethics and confidentiality awareness of relevant teams was strengthened to firmly prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.
Regarding Autohome’s apology statement, Wang Hua, the PR director of Xiaomi Group, forwarded the statement and commented that Autohome is a professional media that we always respect. We are very pleased to see Autohome’s statement and their active cooperation in the investigation and fulfillment of the liability for breach of contract. In fact, this is not the first time that information about Xiaomi’s auto models has been leaked by the media. In December last year, a set of real car pictures about Xiaomi Auto was exposed on the internet, which caused a lot of discussion on the internet at that time. A person from Xiaomi Auto responded that the media that leaked the information had been identified, and responsibility would be pursued according to the “Confidential Commitment Letter” signed. It is understood that the amount of the signed confidentiality agreement is 3 million RMB.
For this matter, Xiaomi officially also issued a statement saying that the leak was mainly due to the employees Bao of media “ZAKER” and Guan of “Xiaobai Buycar”, who intentionally leaked the content of the confidential shooting after signing the “Confidential Commitment Letter” without permission. The official will hold both individuals and their affiliated media accountable for the leak, including but not limited to publicly apologizing and imposing fines.
After the official statement was released, the two media also quickly issued an apology statement, stating that they had dismissed the involved employees and made a decision not to hire them again. It is worth noting that the information of Xiaomi Auto has not only been leaked by the media, but also by suppliers.
In January last year, a set of design pictures about the appearance of Xiaomi’s first model was exposed on the internet. From the leaked pictures, the details of the vehicle’s bumper and Xiaomi MS11’s decorative parts can be clearly seen. In addition, a set of design pictures about Xiaomi’s model were also exposed on the internet. From this set of pictures, the overall appearance effect of Xiaomi’s first model can be seen more clearly.
At that time, in response to the leak of the design drawings, Wang Hua, the general manager of the PR department of Xiaomi Group, posted on his personal Weibo: The leak incident this time is indeed the leak of the design documents for the secondary supplier’s confidentiality. At the same time, it was pointed out that this supplier is only a supplier for mold sampling, and the leaked document is a very early design draft in the bidding process, not the final document. Follow-up, we will definitely deal with it seriously according to the confidentiality agreement signed with the supplier.
In February last year, a spokesperson for Xiaomi also announced the punishment results for the supplier to the outside world. The official said that the information leakage this time was due to the poor management of its downstream suppliers by a model company in Beijing, a partner. According to the “Confidentiality Agreement”, serious treatment was given to the involved partner, and a fine of 1 million yuan was imposed. In addition, it was required to strengthen information security management for downstream suppliers, and serious treatment was given to the person who leaked the information. The supplier was required to formulate a detailed rectification plan to comprehensively upgrade the confidentiality measures.
From the several incidents where information about Xiaomi Auto models was leaked, it is not difficult to see that the popularity of Xiaomi Auto is really too high. Some netizens said: No matter how high the popularity is, practitioners also need to learn the confidentiality rules well. Indeed, in the increasingly fierce market competition, the importance of protecting business secrets and customer privacy is very crucial.
In this regard, some industry insiders pointed out that for enterprises, it is very necessary to sign a confidentiality agreement with employees, especially for information that may involve their own trade secrets, technologies, and the trade secrets between cooperative brands. After all, some of the personnel involved in the event have a weak sense of confidentiality. Signing a confidentiality agreement is beneficial to raising the awareness of information confidentiality among personnel and plays a certain binding role.
