$25 Million Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Apple in South Korea Over Location Data Collection

[ARandomFellow]

Saddened

Honestly, when they figured it out and fixed it, I was kind of sad. I kind of thought it was cool that I could look at a map of everywhere I'd been. I had recently taken a European trip and also some other trips around the US and it was neat to see that graphically and automatically. Pretty fun

 

[Prallethrin]

Didn't Android do the same thing?

Where is the lawsuit towards Google and Android manufacturers like Samsu ... oh wait SKorean company

But all in all, I think Apple will just fight it out to the bitter end and pay up if they lose.
It's all business. If the profit from SKorea > 26 mil than carry on.

 

[chrono1081]

You have no problem letting Apple collecting your location WITHOUT your consent?

You obviously don't realize Apple wasn't collecting your data, the phone simply stored nearly irrelevant data only accessible if someone stole your device, used a special program to get the file and another special program to read the file.

Do you use a GPS? If so guess what, they store your data too and are far more accurate than the data stored by a phone.

 

[Krandor]

There was a time I would have defended Apple over these type of lawsuits, but given Apple themselves have recently decided to litigate instead of innovate... good luck to the Koreans!

So because Apple filed lawsuits they deserved to have frivilous lawsuits filed against them?

I would like to see where anybody in the class action lawsuit was actually "impacted" by this collection. Who got their location data and used it against them? I bet there was no real impact to anybody over this which makes this lawsuit frivilous. Yes, Apple had a bug but I don't see where they get $1000 in damages. How were they damaged?

 

[al2o3cr]

OMG - it's an IRL Zerg rush!

 

[huffboy]

Korean protectionism in action. US consumers should sue samsung back.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

What is it about apple that draws out the most hated words sometimes? I mean, "Finally. The real action against Apple. Is finally here."

Are you kidding me? "most hated words" on a site where posters write much more heated stuff like "die Flash die"?

Are you not reading threads in which the many here rally hard (much more "hated words") against every company- big or small- that seems to cross- or potentially cross- Apple in any way? Apparently no other company can innovate- just Apple. Even history gets re-written here with Apple inventing the tablet, the portable music player, etc, and all claims otherwise are met with bashes (more "hated words) against those pointing out historical fact as well as the companies named in support of those facts.

I'd call "Finally. The real action against Apple. Is finally here." quite tame compared to the Vs. Microsoft, Vs. Google, Vs. Samsung, Vs. HTC, Vs. LG, Vs. Adobe, Vs. Kodak, Vs. Lodsys, et all written here every time there is even a whiff of any party running counter to what appears to be Apple's vision, Apple's product mix, etc. I've seen (too) many threads where Apple's moves end up costing us consumers more money (for example, the whole book price increases when Apple stepped in vs. Amazon) and the bulk of the crowd here will take Apple's side as better even at their (our) own expense. Even then, there's much more "hated words" used against other companies than "Finally. The real action against Apple. Is finally here."

I have lots of Apple products and am a fan of many things Apple. But it's not blind admiration nor is Jobs a Pied Piper (IMO)... at least not for me.

 

[divinox]

Don't try to spin this into something it isn't...

Im not, all phones had a grip of death, Steve himself said so.

every smartphone LITERALLY collects this same information.

According to? Second, collecting != storing. Third, didnt this pop up as late as iOS4?

The difference being that other smartphones were deleting the cache on a regular basis.

A significant difference, really.

And again... the information iOS was collecting was *never* sent away from the phone it was stored on.

But it did. First, it got synced to whatever device you used to sync with. Second, unless Apple (once again) used magic, they managed to crowd-source a database of location points.

Last, but not least: I dont care if they did not send it. If its there they can send it. If its not, they cant. For similar reasons i do not wish for the state to know everything about me (even if they are not looking), or for them to have technology that can keep track of every single thing i do (even if they are not looking).

Yes, for some purposes location awareness (and tracking) is a necessary evil, where the pro's outweigh the con's. Storing thousands of points in a database does not qualify for me however. I value my privacy higher than that. (Especially as these companies provide the government with any data they ask for in the end).

Simply put, this data collection was not made with my interest in mind, but rather the interest of Apple. Whereas i never expect them to put the customer over profits, i do expect them to be open with what they are doing - had they been, we wouldnt have had a location gate to begin with.

 

[Jerome Morrow]

Here's to defending fake privacy. Bravo!

 

[chiefsilverback]

I wonder if Apple will counter sue for their use of an unlicensed depiction of an iOS device?

 

[Prallethrin]

Korean protectionism in action.

I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm probably just over-generalizing ... my impression of Koreans is they are as xenophobic as the Japanese, but without the sense of honor nor pride in their work.

 

[redscull]

If apple is forced to pay, they should markup the future prices of all iOS devices in Korea by 3x. Fairs fair. Act like an idiot, pay idiot prices for devices.

 

[MH01]

So because Apple filed lawsuits they deserved to have frivilous lawsuits filed against them?

I would like to see where anybody in the class action lawsuit was actually "impacted" by this collection. Who got their location data and used it against them? I bet there was no real impact to anybody over this which makes this lawsuit frivilous. Yes, Apple had a bug but I don't see where they get $1000 in damages. How were they damaged?

To be honest this lawsuit is as annoying as Apple's lawsuit against the Samsung Galaxy.

What really sucks is that sales of the Galaxy got pulled in Europe and Australia, and this HAS impacted users.

My point is that all these lawsuits are retarded, and do not help innovation.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

They won't get a penny

They won't even get a single won. Which is worth about 1/10th of what the penny is worth.

 

[Naimfan]

I'm probably just over-generalizing ... my impression of Koreans is they are as xenophobic as the Japanese, but without the sense of honor nor pride in their work.

Probably "over-generalizing?" Massively. I've lived in Korea for a couple of years, and Koreans, for the most part, are as honorable as any other nationality--and take more pride in their work than most. Koreans CAN be a bit xenophobic to Japanese, but if you know anything of the history between Korea and Japan that's not hard to understand.

So let's please stop with the racist comments (yes, your claim is simply racist) and stay on point.

 

[Prallethrin]

Probably "over-generalizing?" Massively. I've lived in Korea for a couple of years, and Koreans, for the most part, are as honorable as any other nationality--and take more pride in their work than most. Koreans CAN be a bit xenophobic to Japanese, but if you know anything of the history between Korea and Japan that's not hard to understand.

So let's please stop with the racist comments (yes, your claim is simply racist) and stay on point.

I'm just giving my impression of them. It is what it is.

I don't have a good impression of the country.

 

[spacemanspifff]

Rope Money Old for

Apple will have to pay this due to the test case being won.

And if they do, they'll just pay up. Then they'll quietly put up the prices of all their products and services in South Korea to cover this loss and some.

If all those people and their lawyers think that they'll be getting some money for nothing, then they need to think again. Apple will get it all back from them in the end.

 

[diminiko]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I wonder if these 27,000 people stopped using the iOS device that violated their human rights once they found out it was happening? Me thinks not!

Perhaps the settlement should include confiscation of the offending device.

 

[hyungsup]

Basically it's the greedy law firm who wants to make big cash settlement or for at least some free public advertising stunt.
It's one of the no claims no fee type of thing.
iPhone users don't have anything to lose.
It's got nothing to do with protectionism and if you want to start talking about protectionism, I think US has one of the worst free trade record.
US only do "free trade" if there's more to win.
The rest will be used to protect own company.

 

[EnigMoiD]

But it did. First, it got synced to whatever device you used to sync with. Second, unless Apple (once again) used magic, they managed to crowd-source a database of location points.

What? That didn't make any sense.

Last, but not least: I dont care if they did not send it. If its there they can send it. If its not, they cant. For similar reasons i do not wish for the state to know everything about me (even if they are not looking), or for them to have technology that can keep track of every single thing i do (even if they are not looking).

True. If the information is on your device, Apple could retrieve it. But what is this information? It's NOT "everything you do." That's just wrong, and misleading. It's a collection of locations of used cell towers. It's not accurate enough to track your location, just the general area where you were.

Yes, for some purposes location awareness (and tracking) is a necessary evil, where the pro's outweigh the con's. Storing thousands of points in a database does not qualify for me however.

Thousands is a little big. I don't think the database ever reached that size.

Simply put, this data collection was not made with my interest in mind, but rather the interest of Apple. Whereas i never expect them to put the customer over profits, i do expect them to be open with what they are doing - had they been, we wouldnt have had a location gate to begin with.

But it really was being used with the consumer's interest in mind, at the end. The data was probably used on the device to choose which cell towers to prefer if there was a choice of towers, among other things. And the practice is in the Apple user agreement. And Google's. Read this. The whole thing.

 

[lowcut80]

They won't even get a single won. Which is worth about 1/10th of what the penny is worth.

Don't show off your ignorance in economics here. Korean 'Won' is at par with US dollar. They use bigger numbers simply beacuse Korean language is very efficient for calling big numbers.
No need to put a long ass word like thousand, million or trillion....

 

[pubwvj]

Time to take the advice of Shakespeare.

 

[Drunken Master]

Please, we all saw Enemy of the State.

The government has been in bed with the telecomm companies for years and has used cell phones to track us.

Of course, most of us have pretty boring, uneventful lives and do nothing worth tracking to begin with. It takes a pretty big ego to think The Man would actually take time out of his day to bother monitoring 99.9 percent of us. If you're Salman Rushdie, don't buy a cell phone.

 

[lewis82]

Don't show off your ignorance in economics here. Korean 'Won' is at par with US dollar. They use bigger numbers simply beacuse Korean language is very efficient for calling big numbers.
No need to put a long ass word like thousand, million or trillion....

[...]seeking 1 million won per person ($930)[...]

On par... really?




Good luck with proving that moral/physical damage was caused. There were no financial losses for iPhone users either. While I deplore what happened, I can't help but think this is just about the money and not about the justice.

 

[Nykwil]

Are you not reading threads in which the many here rally hard (much more "hated words") against every company- big or small- that seems to cross- or potentially cross- Apple in any way? Apparently no other company can innovate- just Apple. Even history gets re-written here with Apple inventing the tablet, the portable music player, etc, and all claims otherwise are met with bashes (more "hated words) against those pointing out historical fact as well as the companies named in support of those facts.

Their words really hurt my feelings. I cant play starcraft 2 now.