Apple Sued Over Meltdown and Spectre in U.S. as iPhone Slowdown Lawsuits Now Total 45

[MaxinMusicCity]

Apple faces its first legal action over Meltdown and Spectre in the United States, even though the vulnerabilities were found to affect nearly all computers and other devices, according to court documents reviewed by MacRumors.

Meltdown and Spectre are serious hardware-based vulnerabilities that take advantage of the speculative execution mechanism of a CPU, allowing hackers to gain access to sensitive information. All modern Intel, ARM, AMD, and Nvidia processors are affected, with many patches and mitigations already released.

Anthony Bartling and Jacqueline Olson filed a class action complaint against Apple last week in a U.S. district court in San Jose on behalf of anyone who purchased a device with an ARM-based processor designed by Apple, ranging from the A4 to A11 Bionic chips used in iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV models.

The complaint alleges that Apple has known about the design defects giving rise to the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities since at least June 2017, and could have disclosed details to the public more promptly.

An excerpt from the complaint:The complaint added that it is unlikely Apple would be able to fully and adequately release fixes for Meltdown and Spectre without the performance of its processors decreasing by between five and 30 percent.

Apple addressed Meltdown in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 and iOS 11.2, while Spectre mitigations were introduced in a macOS 10.13.2 supplemental update and iOS 11.2.2, both of which were released early last week. The vulnerabilities have also been addressed in older versions of macOS and OS X.

Despite one claim that Apple's patch for Spectre resulted in a significant performance decrease on one developer's iPhone 6s, Apple said its testing indicated that the Safari-based mitigations had no measurable impact on its Speedometer and ARES-6 tests and an impact of less than 2.5 percent on the JetStream benchmark.

The complaint expects at least 100 customers to be part of the proposed class, with the combined sum of compensatory and punitive damages expected to exceed $5 million if the case proceeds to trial.

A group of Israelis have filed a request with the Haifa District Court to file a class action lawsuit against Apple, Intel, and ARM over Meltdown and Spectre as well, according to local news publication Hamodia.

iPhone Slowdown Lawsuits Continue to Mount

Apple continues to face an increasing number of lawsuits that either accuse the company of intentionally slowing down older iPhones, or at least of failing to disclose power management changes it made starting in iOS 10.2.1.

In the United States, the iPhone maker now faces at least 39 class action complaints as of January 15, according to court documents compiled by MacRumors. Additional lawsuits have been filed in France, Israel, Russia, Korea, and Vietnam, with another pending in Canada, bringing the total to 45.

Many of the lawsuits demand Apple compensate all iPhone users who have experienced slowdowns, offer free battery replacements, refund customers who purchased brand new iPhones to regain maximum performance, and as Apple has already promised, add more detailed info to iOS about a device's battery health.

We've already answered many frequently asked questions about Apple's power management process, and covered the issue extensively, so read our past coverage for more information about the matter.

Article Link: Apple Sued Over Meltdown and Spectre in U.S. as iPhone Slowdown Lawsuits Now Total 45

I would think the lawsuites would be better aimed at INTEL & ARM. That's where the problem came from

 

[Sweetcheetah]

No problem on my end with all my apple products. Have had Apple products over 20 years. Not sure what all the fuss is all about. All my latest Apple is working VERY well with me producing money earning design projects with my MacBook pro and all the apple products has brought me. Sucks to be those who are easily upset can't live in peace. I'll leave it up to Apple's capable engineers to remedy things as I know they want to ensure security as best they can. It's not like company's like these do this on purpose. It's human imperfection. No one's perfect. Life's too short, I'm pretty happy here. Let's do our best to enjoy life. Let Apple figure out the problem because they want to try to keep their reputation.

 

[MaxinMusicCity]

What bugs me the most about all of this is that Google’s Project Zero notified affected parties about these vulnerabilities during Summer 2017, but this was all kept hush-hush from the public until after the Holiday shopping season.

That’s a new low as far as I’m concerned, as it suggests possibility of more than 1 of those licensees talking to each other to agree on a strategy. In my best 1930’s Chicago gangster voice: “Ok, nobody says anything until after New Years, see!? Or you’ll be getting a pair of concrete galoshes for Christmas!”

I expect it from individual companies, to have every single one of them all keep their mouths shut until after shopping season? Stinks pretty bad, IMO.

Did you want the Hackers to know all the details before the patch could be released?

 

[5105973]

Wait until they take out the throttling code. Your iPhone comes to a complete stop with a weak battery.

Then I know to go in and get the battery replaced. Before, people were thinking their overall hardware was just too old to handle the new software at a decent speed and so it was time to buy a whole new phone. At least now we know better and will be fully informed when we decide whether or not to go in for a trade in or try to get another year out of the phone on a new battery.

 

[gavroche]

Yes, we throttle your phones. Why of course it is a feature!

2018 when people are okay with their phones being throttled.

2018... the year of people who don't understand what's going on, or just make like to make cheap snide comments.

 

[duervo]

Did you want the Hackers to know all the details before the patch could be released?

Totally missed my point, but thanks.

It doesn’t take 7 months to patch a bug with testing data that you’ve been handed on a silver platter. With the proper motivation, there is no way it should take 7 months.

However with the “proper motivation” there is every reason for it to take longer than 7 months.

 

[Act3]

Did you want the Hackers to know all the details before the patch could be released?

Sceptre fixes may require hardware change to completely mitigate. If that’s the case, the 8/8+/X should not have been released until the real fix was known.
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“Yes, the throttling occurs only at peak cpu power calls because we and, more importantly, you don’t want your phone to shutdown.”

2018 when people don’t know how to read articles and skip details to make sensational claims and believe lies.

Why bother having a powerful cpu if it is going to be throttled when doing something CPU intensive ?

Both unexpected shutdowns and throttling are two things that users didn’t pay for or expect. Neither are good.

 

[whsbuss]

I think its time for Tim Cook to move on. The board should meet to find a successor.

 

[gavroche]

Apple deserves to get hit with lawsuits on the iPhone battery throttling fiasco due to their lack of transparency.

Apple deserved to be criticized for lack of transparency. They did not deserve to be sued. As if had they described the software choice they made in better description in release notes anyone would have actually read it or made a different purchasing choice.
Suing accomplishes northing. Are we really a society now where people expect to be shielded from every single possible outcome they disagree with, where reasonable people could think it was a good choice.
The biggest irony for all of you that think the lawsuits are good... hope you realize that you pay for them. You buy Apple products, and the cost of litigation is built into the price of those products. Part of the "Apple Tax" is litigation cost.

 

[bruinsrme]

I hope apple gets what comes to them. No reason for Apple to be throttling hardware I own.

What do you think they have coming to them?

 

[mi7chy]

For you maybe, but I would rather have a phone that is slow and works than crashes.

You're in the minority and, if anything, that's just a temporary band-aid. If a car manufacturer covers up an engine defect by silently slowing it down to prevent it from blowing up, it might be tolerable until the owner can drive to the nearest courthouse to file a lawsuit. It doesn't change the outcome even if it blew up without the slow-down cover-up since the owner can hail a taxi or get a rental car to courthouse.

 

[gavroche]

I understand what they are doing; and it's wrong.

Glad you don't run a company like Apple. Would hate to have to see you try to make product and software choices that 100% of the population all agree with and Noone could disagree with any decision you made. I mean... since you demand perfection and all.

 

[I7guy]

I think its time for Tim Cook to move on. The board should meet to find a successor.

I don't think that will happen. Not as long as earnings are up and customers are happy. (If earnings are up, it's almost a given customers are happy; even if some aren't)

 

[Naraxus]

Not sure why Apple would be at fault

 

[macfacts]

So how is any of this Apple's fault?

Apple knew about it in summer of 2017 yet was happy to sell iPhones with the flaw in fall of 2017.

 

[Norbs12]

So thirsty...

 

[Defthand]

Don't be so fast to dismiss the battery lawsuits as frivolous. Historically, Apple has never acknowledged design or manufacturing defects until the complaints reached critical mass and made headlines. If anything, Apple denies the severity of an issue, and responds to trending complaints on a customer by customer basis. What makes their response to the battery revelation suspicious, is that they made an atypical offer to replace the part--at a discount, and without qualification--after ONE guy publicizes his experience. Clearly, Apple's lawyers didn't think the revelation was frivolous. Their reaction isn't generosity. It's damage control, pure and simple.

 

[bbeagle]

I hope apple gets what comes to them. No reason for Apple to be throttling hardware I own.

But you'd be okay if your device turned off randomly sometimes, right?

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

But you'd be okay if your device turned off randomly sometimes, right?

He'd still complain. He's just looking for any reason to be upset. No winning either way.

 

[gk4]

Totally missed my point, but thanks.

It doesn’t take 7 months to patch a bug with testing data that you’ve been handed on a silver platter. With the proper motivation, there is no way it should take 7 months.

However with the “proper motivation” there is every reason for it to take longer than 7 months.

This isn't a line of code that forgot to sanitize inputs. The flaw exploits a the actual CPU architecture. Just look at the BSODs that the first round of Windows updates caused. That's a sign of code that was likely still actively being worked on right up until the testing deadlines.

If its as you suggest and these were fixed easily months ago, then sat on to prevent any damage during the lucrative holiday shopping period; you expect these patches to work flawlessly.

 

[Dan Holmstock]

The slowing down due to batteries issue is lawsuit worthy, but not meltdown/spectre. Those aren't Apple's fault at all.

Just wild speculation that since Apple makes ARM CPU's that apple somehow knew of the flaw and continued its production. Has anyone seen the complaint in what Apple is being accused of for the production of ARM Chips to what they knew?

But agreed the battery issue warrants discovery on the matter.

 

[FourDegrees]

It doesn't bother some people, really simple at that.

Because most people understand that as hardware ages and software gets updated the result is a performance hit. IMVHO all Apple tried to do was to mitigate the inevitable result of using old(er) technology with new(er) software. Granted they might not have communicated their efforts properly.

The issue with Meltdown and Spectre is very different. I can't see how it can be Apple's fault as the problem lies in the fundamental architecture of the chip.

 

[Dan Holmstock]

So are they going to sue every manufacturer of any product that uses any Intel, ARM or AMD chip ?

I think its anyone who designs/creates a SOC/CPU/GPU. Apple would make this category - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple-designed_processors

 

[AFEPPL]

OK I understood the slowdown lawsuits, but this is just frivolous. If anyone should be sued, it should be Intel.

But hey, go after the company with the most money I guess.

Why would you sue intel for ARM CPUs using apple designed SOC in apple devices?
Does this mean we as owners of apple devices should be able to sue apple everytime they release a patch? Gees, i could be retired by the end of the month with the garbage that is iOS11

 

[deferredAnon]

“Yes, the throttling occurs only at peak cpu power calls because we and, more importantly, you don’t want your phone to shutdown.”

2018 when people don’t know how to read articles and skip details to make sensational claims and believe lies.

According to CPU DasherX, the iPhone 6 is always throttled 30% under 80% charge. I can notice the difference, the delay in loading apps below 80% battery charge, even the default mail app. Worked fine for two years before throttling. No excuses.

I am sure you will change your tune when your time comes.

 

[BladeRunner95]

I think Apple will get hit pretty hard by some of these slow-downs lawsuits, and to be fair they deserve what they get.