Apple is facing another class action lawsuit over its practice of allegedly collecting and sending analytics data from iPhone users, regardless of whether or not the user gave consent. This lawsuit was filed last week in the Pennsylvania Eastern District Court, and it follows a separate class action suit filed in November.
Background
The lawsuit focuses on findings from security researcher and developer Tommy Mysk, who published findings in November, claiming that Apple apps are collecting and sending data regardless of whether or not the user consents to Apple collecting analytics data during the setup process of a new iPhone.
As 9to5Mac reported in November:
Every time you set up a new iPhone, you are asked whether or not you consent to Apple collecting analytics data. If you decline consent, you’d of course expect no analytics data to be sent to Apple.
However, Mysk found that Apple apps were collecting and sending this data regardless of this setting. Indeed, he could see no difference at all in the data sent whether the user had chosen to grant or decline permission.
Mysk initially found this behavior in the App Store app.
Mysk said that both the volume and detail of data would be excessive even with consent, as it included everything needed for device fingerprinting – a technique used by companies like Meta as a workaround to App Tracking Transparency. It should be noted that Apple explicitly forbids such workarounds in its developer guidelines.
The App Store app was sending real-time data on your app searches, the ads you’d seen, how you found the apps you viewed, and even how long you spent looking at an app’s page.
Beyond the App Store, similar behavior was observed by Mysk for Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, and Stocks. He added that, even with consent, “the level of detail is shocking for a company like Apple,” but it was even more concerning that it happened regardless of agreement.
‘Systematic violations of state wiretapping, privacy, and consumer fraud laws’
Apple was hit with a class action lawsuit shortly after the Mysk findings were published, and now it’s facing another one. This month’s lawsuit, spotted by Law.com, accuses Apple of violating “state wiretapping, privacy, and consumer fraud laws.”
This is an action brought on behalf of a class of consumers to seek redress for Apple’s systematic violations of state wiretapping, privacy, and consumer fraud laws.
This case relates to a flagrant violation of consumer privacy. Quite simply, Apple unlawfully records and uses 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. This activity amounts to an enormous wealth of data that Apple collects and uses for its financial gain.
The lawsuit focuses almost entirely on the findings from Mysk, reiterating the information published by the developer team in November. “Apple has not disclosed to users that it was continuing to track their private data, in direct contravention of the users’ requests that Apple not do so, using the very steps Apple instructs users to stop data collection,” the lawsuit explains.
The lawsuit also points out that these findings are in direct contradiction of Apple’s advertising campaigns, which say that “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
What ultimately comes of these lawsuits remains to be seen. They are likely to be consolidated into one class action lawsuit at some point. Apple has not yet responded to either of the lawsuits.
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