That's really weird. Pretty much all Apple job postings include location:

https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search

Indeed, it's bizarre. I imagine it's a technique to force prospects into an NDA as early as possible or, might be just a blanket policy of not giving out any information without an NDA or a legal clearence.

Many jobs they post immediately turn into rumors. Hardly surprising they don’t post everything online.

Does Apple have anything NDA-worthy anymore? Serious question. Look back over the last 5 years and what product would have been devastating to leak (compared to when steve jobs presided)

Regular NDAs I have signed are bi-directional, they protect both the interviewer and the interviewee. E.g. if you interviewed and decided not to take the job but the interviewer called your boss and told him that you're looking to leave your job with a goal to get you fired then you could probably use the NDA to sue. The NDA the recruiter offered was not one of those, it was protecting only Apple so I don't know if they have the same for on-site interviews or more regular one.

Wonder what would happened if they made an experiment to run one product line completely public - public code repo's, chats, emails, meetings, etc.

I'm surprised people are willing to sign a NDA just for the possibility of getting a job. I haven't encountered that before.

(Edited for tone.)

NDA for an interview is pretty normal everywhere. An NDA for a job location, on the other hand, is not something I have been offered anywhere else.

I'm surprised. I've had 8 development jobs in the past 25 years, and in none of my job searches was I asked to sign an NDA.

Depends on the field, I suppose. Product companies usually do this to protect plans for the new products.

You sign one when arriving onsite for an interview at Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google and many other large companies.

Every apple employee

No, not all of them.

They wouldn't tell me the job they were recruiting me for even during the on site interview. Everyone was extremely cagey. Walked out of there decided against working for them based on that. The employees seemed like victims of abuse.

Depending on the org, that's definitely believable. Jobs' legacy has a dark side that people are unwilling to talk about, save for scant few "employees speak out" exposes that break out every few years. It's a massive company and experiences vary across the board, but Apple is definitely one of the more austere and abuse-prone members of FAANG. Amazon is reputedly toxic, as well.

What's the refrain people always throw up when you try to talk about this?

"Don't generalize, it depends on the team!"

As if that's any excuse. The bad teams get staffed too, not just the good ones. Reorgs happen, managers come and go... even if you get lucky at first, you might not stay lucky.