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Apple Pays $946 in Korean Lawsuit Over Location Data Collection, New Class Action Suit Coming

dba7dba said:
Um, read the whole story. He's a lawyer and starting rounding up people for a class action law suit. There are 3 million iphone users in SK.

Do the math and apple could end up paying a billion (in US dollar).

I know I know, Apple has 70 billion in offshore accts etc.
Click to expand...

There's a problem with your calculation. In a case about $946 you can bet that Apple didn't spend much on lawyers. This might even have been a small claims court with Apple not turning up at all. I think in the UK the limit for cases in small claims court is £3000, in Korea it might be one million won, so Apple might have chosen not even to defend itself.

In a class action lawsuit, things would look different.
 
Gosh, call me surprised that hanging a sign out front that says 'Sue Apple and get BIG MONEY' is drawing a lot of traffic.

I expect the same thing in this country, and any other that wants to make a spectacle of itself and its court system...

I downloaded the program to dump the location tracking maps, and it was a joke.

Anyone familiar with the state of Michigan will realize that if I stay around Detroit and Flint and never venture outside of those areas except for occasional trips 'up north' will find the cluster of 'hits' in Grand Rapids rather interesting. I have never been to Grand Rapids! Now if my iPhone has been there without me, then I guess we should have a heart to heart about its rambling ways... Maybe it would be better off with a different owner... (I hope whoever it was, she was cute)

The whole idea of this lawsuit is just such a big show about small crap.

As if the Korean government couldn't locate any of their own citizens within a 200' radius anytime they would want to 'reach out and touch them...

Hell, the CIA/NSA/SS in this country probably knows where you are going before you do, and they don't even need to follow your iPhone.

People are getting torqued out about the wrong things.

Hell, it's possible that Fox News has hacked your voice mail, and people are worried about such pie-in-the-sky tracking that by my judgment is so worthless...

What's the next thing people will get paranoid about.

I mean like, suppose Apple WAS tracking people. What the hell would it matter? It's not like Apple employees are following or tracking people making offers on Apple equipment. I'm more concerned that AT&T's jaundiced 'death star' was able to triangulate my position than Apple's. The paranoia is misplaced IMO...
 
gnasher729 said:
There's a problem with your calculation. In a case about $946 you can bet that Apple didn't spend much on lawyers. This might even have been a small claims court with Apple not turning up at all. I think in the UK the limit for cases in small claims court is £3000, in Korea it might be one million won, so Apple might have chosen not even to defend itself.

In a class action lawsuit, things would look different.
Click to expand...

As far as I know he is correct. The Korean lawyer claimed that Apple Korea owes him 1M won, and the court ordered Apple to pay, without judging his claim was valid or not. Apple did not respond at all (I don't know why, maybe it's trivial to them) and he got the money. If Apple responded at all, I think there was very slim chance for him getting the money. He is now trying to gather people to make it a class action lawsuit, in which case Apple Korea will definitely respond with great care and there must not be much chance for them (Korean iPhone users) to win it. Nevertheless, that lawyer would be able to make a lot of money, depending on how many iPhone users join the lawsuit. So, it was a very smart move from that lawyer, but for others, I'd just say, good luck.
 
mrlhxc said:
The Data Collection lawsuit has cry babies written all over it. If your afraid apple is secretly watching your every step (which they are not), throw your iPhone away.
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The only crybabies I see are in this thread. Lets try to tone down the racial slurs directed towards the Koreans. Afer all they are the ones providing the parts for your itoys.
 
At least in this country, the lawyers are the winners...

We bought a mower and the mighty once US based corporation that has their name on the made in China mower over stated the horsepower and durability of the engine.

So a bunch of people sue. I got a letter that stated that the award would be $75.00 plus an extended warranty for 2 years.

The case settlement was approved by the court. MY 'cut'?

$23.57 or some such... 'Costs increased, and the number of people in the class increased' was the excuse. Barely beer money, however we still got the warranty. Yippee...

Class action cases are a boon for the lawyers. The people that got screwed, get screwed in the end too...
 
addicted44 said:
I am not sure I understand. Apple did NOT collect the data on their servers, right? It was only saved in an unencrypted file locally on your own computer?

If Apple has to pay $946 to every iPhone 4 user they will go bankrupt. I would imagine this was a huge screwup by their Korean unit, and Apple HQ will be stepping in aggressively to fix this.
Click to expand...

Apple MUST have had a public defender to have lost this in court.

shartypants said:
Those lawyers are scum, give me a break, there was no real privacy issue, and Apple has addressed the issue anyway.
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What's 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
At least in this country, the lawyers are the winners...

We bought a mower and the mighty once US based corporation that has their name on the made in China mower over stated the horsepower and durability of the engine.

So a bunch of people sue. I got a letter that stated that the award would be $175.00 plus an extended warranty for 2 years.

The case settlement was approved by the court. MY 'cut'?

$23.57 or some such... 'Costs increased, and the number of people in the class increased' was the excuse. Barely beer money, however we still got the warranty. Yippee...

Class action cases are a boon for the lawyers. The people that got screwed, get screwed in the end too...
Click to expand...

You mower engine MUST have been a big-a$$ engine. I was initially told my part of the settlement would be $35. What I actually got was $10.19.

Maybe we should sue the lawyers. :mad:
 
ucantgetridofme said:
The only crybabies I see are in this thread. Lets try to tone down the racial slurs directed towards the Koreans. Afer all they are the ones providing the parts for your itoys.
Click to expand...

And it's not like their country hasn't done some pretty awful crap to them in the past... They probably should be concerned that *someone* is watching them.

My beef here in this country is that AT&T already rolled over with Bush and gave their evil minions all of our phone records and recordings of our conversations and voice mail and texts. If they have our location and being as inaccurate as mine was, you could find yourself in a whole lot of hot water.

Only a fool trusts their government...
 
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doctor-don said:
You mower engine MUST have been a big-a$$ engine. I was initially told my part of the settlement would be $35. What I actually got was $10.19.

Maybe we should sue the lawyers. :mad:
Click to expand...

Actually I was mistaken, it was something like $75.00 I think. I was so pissed that I think I tossed the check. I wanted the warranty in the beginning but the $75.00 would have been nice in this economy... (Dinner and a movie?)

EDIT: I think it was like $20.00 or around there... It was a joke nonetheless...

(I remember a Verizon class action suit that resulted in a coupon for a free accessory. By that time I had ditched them so like that 'settlement' was worth anything to me... It had 'no cash value'.)
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
Gosh, call me surprised that hanging a sign out front that says 'Sue Apple and get BIG MONEY' is drawing a lot of traffic.


The whole idea of this lawsuit is just such a big show about small crap.

As if the Korean government couldn't locate any of their own citizens within a 200' radius anytime they would want to 'reach out and touch them...

Hell, the CIA/NSA/SS in this country probably knows where you are going before you do, and they don't even need to follow your iPhone.

People are getting torqued out about the wrong things.

Hell, it's possible that Fox News has hacked your voice mail, and people are worried about such pie-in-the-sky tracking that by my judgment is so worthless...

What's the next thing people will get paranoid about.

I mean like, suppose Apple WAS tracking people. What the hell would it matter? It's not like Apple employees are following or tracking people making offers on Apple equipment. I'm more concerned that AT&T's jaundiced 'death star' was able to triangulate my position than Apple's. The paranoia is misplaced IMO...
Click to expand...

It's referred to as a tempest in a teapot.
 
Benjy91 said:
$946! Hahahaaha!

They should have made Steve Jobs sit in the court personally, so after the Judge passed the decision, he could sit up, dig out his wallet and say "I think I've got that much in here".
Click to expand...

Considering Steve Jobs' health, that's not advisable.
 
When was the last time Jobs actually flew anywhere? When was the last time he traveled to anywhere outside California?
 
Spies for Samsung

One cannot help but suspect the people behind this are either Samsung employees or Samsung sympathizers. Apple is a mere "foreign corporation" in the eyes of Korean people.

Consider this story:
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/15/tsmc-begins-trial-manufacturing-of-apple-a6-processors/

People in Korea are not oblivious to this news. Therefore, whoever attacks Apple legally in Korea could have nationalistic reasons for it, over and above mere worries about whether Apple is tracking them. Korean people are as proud of Samsung as Japanese people are of Toyota or Sony.
 
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JDW said:
One cannot help but suspect the people behind this are either Samsung employees or Samsung sympathizers. Apple is a mere "foreign corporation" in the eyes of Korean people.
Click to expand...

Not sure about the Samsung bit, but you're right on the mark with "mere foreign corporation". Koreans tend to have mixed feelings wrt to foreign brands, they crave them but there is a strong patriotism and defence of national brands.

It's interesting that Samsung's previous president (now returning) admitted to be guilty of operating "a slush fund used to bribe influential prosecutors, judges, and political figures in South Korea", sentenced to 3 years suspended jail time and a huge fine, but was (unsurprisingly) later pardoned. This says a lot about the influence of national companies.

This case also comes hot off the first ever successful class action lawsuit against a foreign company in Korea - Dow Corning over breast implants problems - a case which lasted 17 years.
 
Benjy91 said:
$946! Hahahaaha!

They should have made Steve Jobs sit in the court personally, so after the Judge passed the decision, he could sit up, dig out his wallet and say "I think I've got that much in here".
Click to expand...

Um yeah, I don't think Jobs is really healthy enough to be doing that.
 
JDW said:
One cannot help but suspect the people behind this are either Samsung employees or Samsung sympathizers. Apple is a mere "foreign corporation" in the eyes of Korean people.

Consider this story:
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/15/tsmc-begins-trial-manufacturing-of-apple-a6-processors/

People in Korea are not oblivious to this news. Therefore, whoever attacks Apple legally in Korea could have nationalistic reasons for it, over and above mere worries about whether Apple is tracking them. Korean people are as proud of Samsung as Japanese people are of Toyota or Sony.
Click to expand...

Yes. People has to understand that there are cultural differences in Asia then in west. In these countries the whole society is built to advance it own country. They think about them first.
This is completely different from western culture with immigration and multi cultural influences.

The phone have to cache the data of the cell tower to be able to hand over the phone to the next cell tower.
Every single phone does this.

The difference is that iTunes make a backup of your phone. Most other phones does not have a program that backup you phone.

Here Apple hade a software bug that did not remove the cache from the backup.
 
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dr Dunkel said:
I think it is not the reasons people sue that is the worst part, it is the damages the losing end has to pay. The famous coffee incident could well have been a trial case here too, only difference is, the damages would very unlikely have exceeded $2,000... more likely something like $1,000. Other than the size of the claims, there is nothing odd about the litigation in the US.
Click to expand...

Here in Sweden:
We are a socialist country with socialist healthcare. The socialist culture is that you belong to the government. If you are accidentally killed in our health care system you are entitled to 4000 dollar. That is what a life is worth here.

When I had a Dell laptop that gave med 2 degree burn marks on my legs big as footballs. I got my hospital bills and medicine payed. Since it is government financed dell had to pay under 80 dollar. In US I would have gotten million.

This lead to: More people will burn there legs here in Sweden. Dell has no incentive to improve their product.
In US after a million in damages, they would fix the problem.

But this tracking case is silly since all phones track your location. They could not work otherwise. Every single phone can't be active in all cell towers. Therefore cashing and handovers.
This is also the real reason why they don't want you to use mobile phones in airplanes. Your single phone will lock up 1000s of base stations.

(I worked at Ericsson Radio Systems one of the largest base station manufactures)
 
gkpm said:
Not sure about the Samsung bit, but you're right on the mark with "mere foreign corporation". Koreans tend to have mixed feelings wrt to foreign brands, they crave them but there is a strong patriotism and defence of national brands.

It's interesting that Samsung's previous president (now returning) admitted to be guilty of operating "a slush fund used to bribe influential prosecutors, judges, and political figures in South Korea", sentenced to 3 years suspended jail time and a huge fine, but was (unsurprisingly) later pardoned. This says a lot about the influence of national companies.

This case also comes hot off the first ever successful class action lawsuit against a foreign company in Korea - Dow Corning over breast implants problems - a case which lasted 17 years.
Click to expand...

Maybe the president was a Lions fan.
 
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