Move for class-action lawsuit against Apple

Apple faces class action lawsuit after advertising networks access personal information of iPhone and iPad users

JOEL ROSENBLATT

Published: 2010/12/29 07:32:23 AM

APPLE, the maker of the iPhone and iPad, has been accused in a lawsuit of allowing applications for those devices to transmit users’ personal information to advertising networks without customers’ consent.



The complaint, which seeks class action, or group, status, was filed last Thursday in a federal court in San José, northern California.

The suit claims Apple’s iPhones and iPads are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track the applications users download, how frequently they are used and for how long.



"Some apps are selling additional information to ad networks, including users’ location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views," it says.

The suit, filed on behalf of Jonathan Lalo of Los Angeles county, identifies applications such as Pandora, Paper Toss, the Weather Channel and Dictionary.com and names them as defendants with Apple.



Apple iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads are set with a unique device identifier that cannot be blocked by users, according to the complaint. Advertising companies use the information passed on by apps to build user profiles, according to Wired online publication.

"Apple knew this was an issue," one of the lawyers, Majed Nachawati, said. "It had a duty to warn consumers."

Apple says it reviews all applications on its App Store and does not allow them to transmit user data without customer permission.



The lawsuit, claiming that the transmission of personal information is a violation of US federal computer fraud and privacy laws, seeks class-action status for Apple customers who downloaded an application on their iPhone or iPad between December 1 2008 and last week. Bloomberg