In recent years, privacy concerns surrounding technology companies have become a hot topic. Most recently it's the class action lawsuit regarding privacy which alleges that Apple ignores device privacy settings where their own apps are concerned.
The lawsuit was filed in January in Pennsylvania and accuses Apple of violating users' privacy by disregarding device privacy settings in their first-party apps. Its unclear if every Apple native app is involved, but researchers at software company Mysk, say they discovered Apple Music, the App store, Books and Stocks were collecting personal user data, despite users opting out of sharing analytics.
The lawsuit also claims that data about searches in the App store, ads the user sees, and how much time was spent looking at each app download page is being collected. All of this data means Apple could infer very private information such as, whether the user has health concerns or addiction issues as well as less sensitive information about what type of media they like (Books app) or even what stocks they are tracking (Stocks app)
This most recent lawsuit expands on a suit filed last November in California and calls into question whether Apple has violated Pennsylvania consumer fraud, wiretapping, and privacy laws by ignoring consumer device settings.
These Apple privacy violation lawsuits highlight the importance of privacy and security in the tech industry. As technology continues to advance, it is crucial that individuals, companies, and regulators work together to ensure that individual privacy rights are protected.