Only four people at the company knew about the project, according to former Apple software engineer David Shayer.
Two men from a defence contractor had arrived at Apple in 2005, on behalf of the US Department of Energy, he said. They had wanted help to build an iPod that looked and worked just like a normal one but secretly recorded data using hidden extra hardware inside. Apple had helped the engineers build a custom version of the iPod software to accommodate the secret device, Mr Shayer said.
"They were careful to make sure I never saw the hardware,"
he wrote in a lengthy post for Apple newsletter Tidbits.
"And I never did."
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