Apple recently found itself in the centre of a rather uncomfortable spotlight following the death of an employee at Foxconn, a Chinese firm that manufactures iPhones.

The 25 year-old worker committed suicide earlier this month by jumping from his high-rise apartment. Prior to his death, the man was the focus of a Foxconn interrogation stemming from the loss of a prototype iPhone due to be sent to Apple.

The story has led some to point fingers towards Cupertino, and the thick veil of secrecy with which Apple does business. Some suggest that the company's code of silence put pressure on Foxconn and its employees, which in turn drove the victim to kill himself.

The obvious points have been made elsewhere: the man's own mental health is a factor; the fact that Apple has in the past demanded its manufacturers improve employee treatment. Aside from that, there's no reason to believe that this would not have happened had Foxconn been making handsets for HTC or Palm. Every company keeps prototypes under tight wraps.

But one thing that people seem to be missing is the nature with which Apple keeps its news secret. Much of this debate stems from the assumption that Apple keeps its products in the dark by placing tight restrictions on communication and ominous threats for all who would leak important information.

That's not really how it works.

In my own experience and from those I've spoken with, Apple keeps its secrets not by clamping mouths shut, but by simply not telling people. Unlike other companies which like to give out pre-briefings to reporters under pre-agreed embargo times - and often those times get thrown out the window by publications looking to break the news first - Apple doesn't have to worry about that because they don't do it. Journalists don't get briefings ahead of time, every reporter gets the news at the same time, provided they are at the event at which the news is released. Employees not involved in a certain project don't get to see it. Even the spokespeople who write the press releases are sometimes said to be doing so in isolation.

Sure, Apple has non-disclosure agreements and other methods of keeping things silent that other companies use, but the big secret to the company's ability to keep things secret is not because of some huge, lurking sense of dread in every employee, it's because they so tightly manage access to information, both inside the company and out.