How does Apple do such a good job of getting employees to commit to absolute secrecy?

From Adam Lashinsky's book Inside Apple: Jobs made a habit of personally conveying to employees the confidentiality of all-company broadcasts. Recalled one ex-employee: “He’d say, ‘Anything disclosed from this meeting will result not just in termination but in the prosecution to the fullest extent that our lawyers can.’ This made me very uncomfortable. You have to watch everything you do. I’d have nightmares.”

I disagree with the answers here.  It's not about fear. You learn to appreciate how much work goes into a product when you see all the long nights, debates, blood, sweat, and tears that go into everything Apple produces... you really want to ruin all of that hard work by running to the press?  And for what?  Not money, not fame (you're doing it anonymously if you want to keep your job...), not career advancement, etc. There's no personal gain and you're doing something disappointing and hurtful to your coworkers.  What rational person would do that?

I think the anecdote contained in is illustrative. I met Steve Jobs randomly while working as an intern at Apple in the summer of 2010.  I had stepped into  an elevator on the main Apple campus when, just as the door was  closing, Steve Jobs strolled in.  He saw that I had an intern badge on, and asked me what I was working on over the summer. When he asked me this question, I wasn't sure what to say.  Should I tell him what I was working on, and risk getting in trouble for disclosing  what I was working on (as we had been instructed not to do during  orientation), or should I just tell him that I wasn't allowed to tell him? I went with the latter, telling him, "Sorry, but I'm not supposed to tell you." Steve flashed a smile, chuckled a little, and stepped out of the elevator.

In general, people working for Apple believe in the reasons for the secrecy. It's easy to motivate people to keep their mouths shut if they understand the need. When leaks happened, even simple things like leaked copies of Steve Jobs' or Tim Cook's company-wide e-mails, we actually felt angry that “one of their own” would have betrayed our trust. Additionally, the feeling of fear that most outsiders assume that Apple employees feel isn't really there. As long as you don't try to cover your ass, by not reporting leaks or losses you were involved in, you'll generally come out OK. Even in a famous, well-publicized lost device case, not much happened to the person who lost the device. This is because they followed proper procedure, and reported the loss as soon as it was discovered.There was one occasion where I thought I had lost prototype devices, and it was well before I had any experience in dealing with lost devices, so I was a bit anxious. The instant I realized that I didn't know where the device was, I sent an e-mail to my manager, sent an e-mail to Apple security, and marked the device as "lost" in the records. I got a phone call from security and explained the situation (i.e. when/where I had last seen the device, the device's serial number, etc.). The device was found a couple of days later (it was in a filing cabinet in the office of a coworker who I had lent it to as a test device, but hadn't marked it as transferred in the tracking system). I asked my contact in security what the consequences for me would be, and he basically said that I had followed procedure, and that there would likely be no consequences (and there weren't any).Another occasion, while at WWDC, I called something by it's working name. This was a product that we had all known by a particular name for years, and just weeks before announcement, the name was changed. The reaction to that was simply, "whoops, mistakes happen." They knew that no malice or incompetence were involved, and there simply wasn't an issue.Basically, my point is, the security and secrecy at Apple isn't maintained through fear and control, it's maintained by making the employees feel that they have a stake in the company, and by treating them like competent adults.

It isn't hard.  It is harped upon at employee orientation and the internal culture is very careful to report any infringement.  Those that break it get fired immediately.