Ashley Gjøvik

Education and career

Gjøvik studied literature with an intent to get a Master of Fine Arts. She received a bachelor's degree at Portland State University (PSU). After working at PSU and Nike, Inc., she joined Apple in 2015. In 2016, she became an engineering program manager for Apple working out of their Sunnyvale office. She spent several months on paid leave between 2020 and 2021. While employed at Apple, Gjøvik studied public international law and human rights at Santa Clara University. She received a Juris Doctor. A few days later, The Verge published an article in which she and other Apple employees told the publication they were discouraged from keeping separate phones for personal and professional use and were expected to help test software with informed consent. Program manager Janneke Parrish also said this in an interview. Apple instructs its employees not to upload sensitive, confidential, or private data to work tools. |group=lower-alpha which took photos and brief videos when it sensed a face. A screen recording taken by Gjøvik was included in the article and in a tweet. In September 2025, the NLRB dismissed the charges that Apple had suspended and fired her illegally. The memo was criticized for conflating product leaks with employee activism around workplace conditions, and for including the line, "people who leak confidential information do not belong here," which some interpreted as threatening. Gjøvik alleged that the memo and several other policies in the employee handbook illegally inhibit staff from exercising their federally-protected rights to discuss wages and talk to the press. In an April 2025 settlement with the NLRB, Apple was required to recognize that their employment "Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Agreement" with their workers "does not include wages, hours, and working conditions," nor prohibit employees from speaking to the press about those topics. The following September, the NLRB dismissed the charges regarding Cook's memo.

Gjovik v. Apple Inc.

Gjovik v. Apple Inc. was a pro se whistleblower retaliation and wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by Gjøvik in September 2023 against Apple in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for complaints she made with federal and state agencies in 2021. The case was dismissed in summary judgment that found in favor of Apple on June 24, 2026. in February 2025, Judge Edward M. Chen determined that Gjøvik had adequately alleged that Apple violated the California Whistleblower Act for a complaint filed with the California Department of Industrial Relations over her environmental concerns about her office,