Apple has reportedly been hit with a class action lawsuit for tracking users without their consent. 

Apple proudly says that privacy is the core of the iPhone. It has introduced a lot of features in recent years to back its claims. However, a lawsuit has been filed by the New York citizen and iPhone 13 owner Elliot Libman against Apple, stating that its promises are “completely illusory.”

The lawsuit alleges that the option to disable apps from tracking the user does not stop Apple, and Apple apps, such as Apple Music, Apple TV, App Store, and others, from collecting data.

The lawsuit cites a recent Gizmodo report that covered the works of security researchers at the software company Mysk. The firm has evidently said that the analytics control and anti-tracking settings have no ‘obvious‘ effect on Apple’s data collection in the first-party apps.  

For e.g., App Store continues to monitor a lot of data about the user, such as user taps, apps searched for, viewed ads, and how long a user looks at any given app, even when the tracking option is disabled. Similarly, the firm found that the Stocks app sent Apple a user’s list of watched stocks, stocks viewed or searched for (including timestamps), as well as a record of news articles viewed in the app.

Gizmodo now reports that a class action lawsuit has been filed in California. 

The lawsuit accuses Apple of violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act. “Privacy is one of the main issues that Apple uses to set its products apart from competitors,” the plaintiff, Elliot Libman, said in the suit, which can be read on Bloomberg Law. “But Apple’s privacy guarantees are completely illusory.” The company has plastered billboards across the country with the slogan “Privacy. That’s iPhone.” 

Via: Bloomberg