To recap this story, you may recall that last year that a security researcher named Tommy Mysk discovered that regardless of whether you allowed your iPhone to send analytics data to Apple or not, iPhones and specifically Apple apps were sending that data anyway. That led to a lawsuit. Which then became two lawsuits, then three lawsuits. Now we have the fourth lawsuit as spotted by The Register:
The 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.”
I’ve said this before and I will say it again. Apple trades on being more private than the other guy. The other guy being Android. And these lawsuits really take that perception and rips it to shreds. And as more of these lawsuits get filed, because you know that there are more lawsuits coming, that’s only going to get worse for Apple. Thus they really need to speak to this, and do so quickly. The problem is that Apple isn’t going to do that, and that will make things worse for the folks at Apple Park.
Sucks to be you Apple.