Apple sued for promising privacy, failing at it
- Reference: 1674907450
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/01/28/apple_sued_privacy/
- Source link:
The [1]complaint [PDF], filed in Northern California District Court on behalf of plaintiff Julie Cima, claims Apple captures iPhone customer data despite device settings declaring a preference that information should not be shared.
"Apple records consumers’ personal information and activity on its consumer mobile devices and applications ('apps'), even after consumers explicitly indicate through Apple’s mobile device settings that they do not want their data and information shared," the complaint, filed this week, says. "This activity amounts to an enormous wealth of data that Apple collects and uses for its financial gain."
[2]
The legal filing cites research published last November by a two-person firm developer team called Mysk that [3]claimed Apple collects analytics data even when iPhone users have set a preference disallowing data collection. Those claims led to [4]a similar sueball shortly after they appeared, and to [5]another such case filed earlier this month.
[6]Wiretap lawsuit accuses Apple of tracking iPhone users who opted out
[7]Apple emits emergency patch for older iPhones after snoops pounce on WebKit hole
[8]Apple preps for 'third-party iOS app stores' in Europe
[9]Apple should pay €6m to French data watchdog for tracking users without consent, says official
[10]Prior research by boffins from Oxford University, published in April 2022, presents similar allegations. The researchers claim Apple engages in invasive data practices similar to those it forbids among third-parties, in violation of consumer expectation and marketing slogans.
As with the previous privacy lawsuits, Cima's lawsuit argues that Apple makes misleading promises in its marketing and published policies.
[11]
[12]
The perceived mismatch between marketing and reality is a common theme in litigation against Apple. Those raising legal challenges in the past, for example, have railed about the discrepancy between [13]advertised screen size and actual screen size . They've also taken issue with Apple's assertions about the extent to which its products [14]can resist [15]water damage .
This latest bit of lawyering goes after the alleged hypocrisy in Apple's privacy policy commitment, "At Apple, we respect your ability to know, access, correct, transfer, restrict the processing of, and delete your personal data," and in the company's promise to "disable [the sharing of] Device Analytics altogether" at the touch of an off button.
[16]
The complaint cites Apple billboard campaign slogans like "Privacy. That’s iPhone," and "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone," and "Your iPhone knows a lot about you. But we don't."
The lawsuit then goes on to insist that "Apple does not honor users' requests to restrict data sharing," claiming that the company tracks consumer actions including: how users find apps; the amount of time spent looking at apps in its App Store; App Store searches; and App Store ads displayed and clicked on.
Setting aside the possibility of legal deficiencies that can get such claims tossed, the iPhone maker may choose to defend itself by arguing that ingesting data through its first-party relationship with its customers is not sharing information with a third party.
[17]
Apple has not yet responded to the privacy claims made in the similar cases filed in November 11, 2022 (Libman v. Apple)
[18]PDF
, and January, 2023 (Serrano v. Apple). In the former case, the company has agreed to file its response by February 17, 2023.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/01/28/pacer_apple_lawsuit.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y9VUrD2E3j9l7rE33mwBhgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://twitter.com/mysk_co/status/1588308341780262912
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/14/apple_data_collection_lawsuit/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/10/apple_wiretap_lawsuit/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/10/apple_wiretap_lawsuit/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/24/apple_iphone_bug_under_exploit/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/14/apple_eu_third_party_ios/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/13/apple_should_be_fined_6mn/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/08/apple_ios_privacy/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y9VUrD2E3j9l7rE33mwBhgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y9VUrD2E3j9l7rE33mwBhgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2018/12/15/apple_iphone_lawsuit/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/30/apple_italy_waterproof_fine/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/26/apple_water_lawsuit/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y9VUrD2E3j9l7rE33mwBhgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y9VUrD2E3j9l7rE33mwBhgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://www.classaction.org/media/libman-v-apple-inc.pdf
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Whatever you think, companies have to abide to the law. If there is a law that forbids them to gather data without permissions, or use them in a way beyond the permission obtained, they can't break them.
It tracking is OK for you, it's not for many other people who wish their data to be used **only** for the purpose they gave them to a company.
Moreover no company tracks you for the sake of it. Tracking is used to drive you to buy more of something - and the matter if it is 1st party or third party matters little. Services built on gathered data will be sold to others to target you in exchange of money.
"I simply wouldn't use them."
When they got a monopoly on many services it's not so simple to do without them. I can no longer access my bank if I have not a phone for 2FA - they no longer issue separate tokens. So when you have a dominant position in one market, and people are basically forced to use your products, you have to undergo even bigger scrutiny and laws can be enacted to avoid the position is exploited against users.
This is "normal" everywhere.
Companies capturing customer data despite device settings is too often an internal "feature" because advertising is the major source of income for virtually all enterprises in the modern data world now. We see a lot of stories about these events in El Reg, but I wonder how many times this is just under the table? We think that our data is "ours" ... certainly it is, but when we are just device/app/OS/website users then we are just income for so many advertising environments.
Basically Advertising has evolved, originally it was just a sign in the street and a small picture/proposal in a newspaper that were designed to make us happy to read - think of this change like being given a young kitty at home ... but the "kitten" has now grown bigger, four feet tall with a large mane and teeth six inches long ... so now we're lunch.
I don’t have much of an issue with a company that doesn’t promise privacy to any extent whatsoever, using metrics in a legal fashion, within the context as laid out by common law.
What I don’t like is a company that is actively selling privacy as a feature and positive sales point of the said brand doing the same.
When does the onus come on to the user to stop using something if they want privacy?
I don't like my personal data being shared, but I do accept that my data is being used by companies that I have a relationship with.
I fully expect Amazon track me across their site, and I don't really mind that, those kind of metrics are useful to companies to better optimise their products. (eg, I worked for a company that tripled it's sales in the early days of the web by simply re-arranging it's order page, but we did need user analytics to work this out).
The problem for me is when companies share it with 3rd parties that I don't have a relationship with, or use their dual nature of their product to track me when not using their product explicitly. (Advertising trackers for people like Google and Amazon come to mind here, I don't want amazon knowing that I look at a particular website simply because they sell advertising to that website).
i.e., I don't mind Apple tracking what pages I look at on the App Store app, but if they're tracking me looking at pages on the Amazon app, or vice versa, that would be a problem.
If I didn't want Apple (or Amazon, or Google) to know what I did with their services however, I simply wouldn't use them.
(or maybe it's just the older I get I realise my secret plans for world domination are less likely to come to fruition and there's less reason to hide them from the world anymore).