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Apple Hit With Class Action Alleging It Tracks Users Despite Privacy Assurances

lemonkid said:
I did one single Google search to see what would come up. I took only one single result, the first one that came up. I was just curious if data was sold or not. And the result:

NHS sells data

So I am afraid that data selling is a common practise even by the British NHS
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Well, I think Apple and Google does not sell directly your data to others, that would be like handing out the Coca-Cola recipe, that would undercut their advantage(your data is their gold). They sell, let me call it "advertisement slots" that is based on your data or create new anticompetitive products.

The thing is, with Google we always knew what they do, and we were able to be careful, but with Apple that's a huge breach of trust, specially after all these bold privacy campaigns that ran over many years fooling their customers.
 
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MJaP said:
I always got the feeling that Apple were no more trustworthy as far as data COLLECTION was concerned than Google or Meta or any other technology behemoth. The only difference with Apple is they like to keep all that information (and the market power that comes with it) to themselves rather than sell it on to whoever waves a large sum of cash in front of them.
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My take exactly.
 
So I'm thinking Apple knows my proclivities for watching space alien incest porn???

I have some scrubbing to do...

And maybe a new device search...
 
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tufapshakur said:
Apple is transparent and honest and I trust them 100%. This kind of opportunism is intolerable.
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I don't know what gave the mass this feeling apart from branding. They make the best products and I think that deludes everyone into liking and defending every move of corporate itself, but in my eyes they're the shadiest and most dishonest company in tech. At least Meta and the likes are not pushing privacy as a selling point, plus there's always something to be uncovered about lying to customers with Apple and generally hostile practices behind a 'we love our customers' branding.
 
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lemonkid said:
I did one single Google search to see what would come up. I took only one single result, the first one that came up. I was just curious if data was sold or not. And the result:

NHS sells data

So I am afraid that data selling is a common practise even by the British NHS
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But we’re not talking about the NHS, we’re talking strictly about big tech and the companies Apple are compared to by the poster I was responding to. In this case Google, Amazon & Meta.

These companies don’t sell their data because it would damage their business models, yet it’s a common misconception that they do.

There absolutely are data broker companies out there that do sell data - I’m not disputing that, but Google and co. don’t because they have more advanced methods of using that data to sell customer profiles.
 
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I only read MR’s recap about this, it only mentions switching off diagnostics.

How about turning off Personalised Recommendations from Settings - your name - Media & Purchases - View account.

”When turned on, your app usage, downloads, purchases and other activity will be used to improve your recommendations in the App Store, Apple Books, iTunes Store, Apple TV, Apple Podcasts and for subscriptions from Apple.”

If that is on, then it’s all working as expected. Read the full terms and conditions, it’s all there.

If the data is still sent after turning the above off, then these folks are onto something and I would love to see an official response.
 
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It’s unrealistic to think Apple doesn’t run any type of analytics on its device, and it’s likely included in the terms of use. New features are often a result of interpretations of how the users are using their devices and services and they need data for that.

This is completely unrelated with the type of data Meta collect and what it does with it
 
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Oh joy, another class action suit. So in four years we'll all get a check for six bucks in the mail.
 
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MacRumors said:
The researchers uncovered these findings using a jailbroken iPhone running iOS 14.6. Notably, while the team discovered similar iPhone activity on a non-jailbroken phone running iOS 16, the data was encrypted and it was therefore not possible to determine exactly what it contained.
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oof, I can see the entire case hanging on this.
 
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I don't want to defend Apple here because if true it is a huge breach of user trust and they deserve to be sued. However lawsuits like this are just lawyers being opportunistic. The law firm filing this doesn't really have any evidence, just a researchers report. The report itself kind of falls apart upon closer scrutiny. Why would Apple bother to collect screen resolution, or other data for device fingerprinting? They wrote the OS and made the phone, they can easily pass the phones UDID. Additionally they know the AppleID the device is logged in to the Appstore under. All the tracking Apple is being accused of could easily be extrapolated server side without ever passing the information from the phone to Apples servers. If Apple was being nefarious why do it in a way that could realistically easily be caught. If tracking was being done server side the only way to be caught is from a whistleblower inside Apple.

The law firm filing this stands to make huge amounts of money if successful in getting class action status. Say this ends up being a $600 million class action with 200 million members. Apple settles it and each member gets $2 while the law firm that files gets $200 mill.

When a lawsuit like this is filed over the weekend based on one security researchers report that came out just a few days pervious it is just a fishing expedition. The filing law firm should at least take the time to check the researchers work to see if what they stated was actually happening.
 
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Wait, you mean the stocks app is sending a list of my stocks, and the time stamp to make sure the price is current? How dare they send a query to the internet to retrieve the results! Privacy violation! I expected the stock prices to be determined offline and real-time via an on-device algorithm! /s
 
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t122648 said:
Always amusing to see forums members who would be beyond angry if google/meta did this, but 'nothing to see here, move on' when apple does it.
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Any company like Meta, Alphabet, Apple, Netflix, Amazon etc. should be treated the same when it comes to cybersecurity principles and research as well as privacy in terms of data capture and processing. However it's critical to stay on facts and do not automatically start a witch-hunt where many commenters are unclear on the fundamentals here.
 
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“The researchers uncovered these findings using a jailbroken ‌iPhone‌ running iOS 14.6. Notably, while the team discovered similar ‌iPhone‌ activity on a non-jailbroken phone running iOS 16, the data was encrypted and it was therefore not possible to determine exactly what it contained. This limitation has not prevented the findings from instigating a lawsuit, however.”

So it’s the Jailbroken iPhone thats the issue, not the legit iPhone?
 
rmariboe said:
Even if Apple is indeed gathering behavioral data, I’m betting they will be able to show that it’s anonymized, thus legally and morally unobjectionable.
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If this case gets toss out, it'll be because Apple carved out an exeption for themselves which would be ruled legal.

But just because it may be legal doesn't make it moral.

Apple says "Control is yours" and that "Settings have been carefully designed to put you in control of your data. You can adjust what information is shared, where you share it, and when it is backed up" but that only applies to 3rd party apps, not Apple's own apps.

That's why I cannot stop Apple from tracking me and targeting me with ads, as I've mentioned here before.

ad.png


Apple even admits that they collect user info

"Data and privacy information screens make it easy to understand how Apple will use your personal information before you sign in or start using new features. When you see the Data and Privacy icon, you’ll find helpful information on what personal data may be shared and how it will be used to improve your experience."

and

"Apple is committed to delivering advertising in a way that respects your privacy. Apple‑delivered ads may appear on the App Store, Apple News, and Stocks. The Apple advertising platform does not track you, nor does it buy or share your personal information with other companies. Your Apple Pay transactions, Health app data, and HomeKit app data are not used by the Apple advertising platform to deliver ads. Your App Store search and download history may be used to serve you relevant ads. In the Apple News and Stocks apps, ads are served based partly on what you read or follow. . . . The stories you read are not used to serve targeted ads to you outside these apps. "


Apple will just serve targeted ads to you within their apps.
 
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Some real jokers in this thread desperately trying to brush this off and dismiss it 😂

You probably feel real stupid defending them having spent 1000s on a company that is worse than Google or Meta because they lied.

Apple is not a trustworthy company, the hardware isn't enough anymore for them and that's why we have all these silly subscriptions, Ads and data selling going on with them.
 
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sw1tcher said:
But just because it may be legal doesn't make it moral.
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Exactly, many people are missing the point here. What Apple does is most likely completely legal and aligned with their legal framework however I do not think their language on marketing materials has been widely understood with general public. And that's a problem and no surprise users are annoyed.

At the end of a day, people can definitely make themselves heard via their purchases in the future.
 
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MacRumors said:
The researchers uncovered these findings using a jailbroken iPhone running iOS 14.6. Notably, while the team discovered similar iPhone activity on a non-jailbroken phone running iOS 16, the data was encrypted and it was therefore not possible to determine exactly what it contained. This limitation has not prevented the findings from instigating a lawsuit, however.
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Im confused with this wording. Does this mean Apple is confirmed to care about privacy?
 
CaptFuzzyBuns said:
“The researchers uncovered these findings using a jailbroken ‌iPhone‌ running iOS 14.6. Notably, while the team discovered similar ‌iPhone‌ activity on a non-jailbroken phone running iOS 16, the data was encrypted and it was therefore not possible to determine exactly what it contained. This limitation has not prevented the findings from instigating a lawsuit, however.”

So it’s the Jailbroken iPhone thats the issue, not the legit iPhone?
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They’re assuming that it’s the same data given packet sizes seeing as they can’t actually see the data on the unjailbroken iPhone.

It’s an…interesting conclusion to come to across 2 different devices, OS levels, and one being jailbroken.

I think if there’s any actually journalism to happen here (which NEVER happens in the tech press so don’t count on it) there’s a lot to unpack here.

Don’t expect this to stem the hot takes from people that know nothing about computers though!
 
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