back to article Apple smacked with privacy sueball over Location Services

A woman has brought a class-action lawsuit for "invasion of privacy" against Apple over claims surrounding the firm's use of Location Services to track iPhone users and store data on their movements. The class action suit was filed by a consumer named Chen Ma on behalf of an estimated 100 million affected users. She wants …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You don't have to enable them now do you?

    So she thinks that every iPhone and iPad user is wronged by this behavior?

    Well, as an ex iPhone user (company mobile) I never enabled it in the first place so I fail to see how I have been wronged.

    How do Android and Windows devices work here?

    I really don't know because I gave up on Smartphones and am currently using an old Nokia device.

    Does she stand a chance of success? Could Apple file suit against her for vexations litigation?

    This will have some way to go before it is settled.

    If I liked Popcorn then I might just think about getting some and watch the events unfold.

    1. big_D Silver badge

      Re: You don't have to enable them now do you?

      Android are far more insidious than Apple in their usage of tracking data, but they don't try and hide it either (neither do Apple). MS is about the same as Apple in that respect, it is used by their services but not sold on.

      1. Pu02

        Re: You don't have to enable them now do you?

        "... MS is about the same as Apple in that respect, it is used by their services but not sold on"

        Yet...

  2. big_D Silver badge

    Privacy policy

    you generally only get to see that after you have bought the iPhone and sign up for an account... It certainly isn't plastered on the outside of the box in which the iPhone comes and there isn't a seal on the packaging saying go to this web page and read the privacy policy before opening...

    The same goes for the EULA on most Apple products - which is why it wasn't illegal to make a Hackintosh in Germany; in Germany you can only be held to the terms and conditions presented to you on the packaging before purchase, as the EULA was inside the box and couldn't be read until you had opened the packaging, which you could only do after purchase, the restrictions, such as only installing it on an Apple branded computer, were not enforecable under German law.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Privacy policy

      You also have 14 days (something like that) in which you can return it for a full refund, so not seeing the full privacy policy until after you've purchased it is not the issue you make it out to be.

      1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

        Re returns

        > You also have 14 days (something like that) in which you can return it for a full refund...

        Who pays for that and can you charge interest?

        Scrub that.

        What you do is buy one and take it back after 13 days use and demand five or ten quid for your trouble, plus interest. Then you buy another one and do the same. You will soon accrue enough money to buy...

        Oh... wait...

        No that's right. Then when Apple go broke you buy a Samsung...

        ...with the money you saved...

        1. Steve I

          Re: Re returns

          What on Earth are you wittering on about? Claiming money plus interest for the time you had a product before you decided to return it? What colour is the sky on your planet?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Base stations.

    Makes you wonder what's going on at the base station level. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of detailed tracking going on there, that no regular user is ever told about. Maybe she should sue all the cell phone operators as well? US is a funny country.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Base stations.

      the base stations do track you, other wise they wouldn't be able to hand over to other cells. This is no secret, it how they work. If you are on about do they keep it? Yes they do, it helps with billing, fault diagnostics and a whole load of other things.

      If you don't want to be tracked, don't turn it on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Base stations.

        <comment>

        If you don't want to be tracked, don't turn it on.

        </comment>

        If you don't want to be tracked remove the battery

      2. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: Base stations.

        If you don't want to be tracked, don't turn it on.

        If you want civil liberties, don't use any of the tools required to participate fully in modern society, hold a well paying job or even obtain such a job in the first place. Why stop there? Why don't you just tell people that if they don't like what governments and corporations do in their name they should kill themselves? Fascist.

    2. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      Free as in

      America?

      That's a joke, right?

      I see what you did there.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple are only interested in ad ownership.

    Obviously with Apple, your privacy gives them 100% ownership of ads.

    So don't worry about privacy, one offshoot of the monopoly is that Apple are good that way.

    Now those billions of taxpayers money stashed offshore are a different story.

    They are devastating to the nations wealth.

    1. Mike Bell

      Re: Apple are only interested in ad ownership.

      Apple Ads. Here's some information for you.

      As and end user, you can easily turn it off.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re - compromising iPhone's functionality....

    Too true.

    They fucked up your control of the GPS good and proper that way from day 1.

    And now we know it was in the cause of that iBeacon spam machine.

  6. john devoy

    Aren't these services needed for the lost/stolen phone system to work?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Obviously so, you can't know where a lost phone is if it doesn't have a way of telling someone who can tell you!

  7. William Boyle

    Who reads that cruft anyway?

    "Last year, a US judge threw out a similar data privacy lawsuit, after ruling the plaintiffs had failed to show any evidence that they had bothered to read Apple's privacy policies before they bought their iPhones."

    Assuming the judge in question has a phone (any, not just an iPhone), ask if he/she read the privacy policy...

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: Who reads that cruft anyway?

      Update iOS? Update AppStore? Update...

      You get a square box on the screen, maybe 2/3rds the size of it, with text. A helpful indicator shows that there are over 40 pages of it to read. There's no indication of what is no or different to before, and best yet, there is no "I disagree". The new software has been installed, there is no (simple) way to revert to what there was before, just an "accept this rubbish and you can carry on using your iThingy" button.

  8. Sureo

    Legalese is hard enough to understand without the spelling mistakes and bad grammar.

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