Last month, we noted that Apple had been ordered by a South Korean court to pay out one million won (approximately $946 at the time) to an iPhone user in a case regarding the company's collection of location data. At the time, it was reported that the plaintiff's lawyers were working to file a class-action lawsuit to cover additional users claiming to have been harmed by the collection.
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Bloomberg reports that that lawsuit has now been filed, with about 27,000 users signing on to the lawsuit and each seeking one million won ($930) in compensation.
A group of South Korean users of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone sued the company in a local court, claiming it invaded their privacy by allowing the smartphone to collect location data without their consent.
About 27,000 people joined a class-action suit against Apple’s South Korean unit and headquarters, seeking 1 million won per person ($930) in damages, according to a notice posted online by Mirae Law, which represents the plaintiffs. The suit was filed in Changwon, south of Seoul, where the law firm is located.
The report notes that in addition to the earlier judgment against Apple, the company was also fined 3 million won earlier this month by the Korea Communications Commission over the same issue. Apple has also been ordered to encrypt any location data collected, a step Apple previously promised to take.
Top Rated Comments
There's a HUGE difference between the implications and what really happened.
You have no problem letting Apple collecting your location WITHOUT your consent?
Apple took no location data, if you really understood that the information was only on the phone from cell towers location... That's it.
It never once went to Apple in Any way.
Get your story straight or stop posting garbage.
Just like all smart-phones have the "grip of death", right?
Don't try to spin this into something it isn't... every smartphone LITERALLY collects this same information. The difference being that other smartphones were deleting the cache on a regular basis.
And again... the information iOS was collecting was *never* sent away from the phone it was stored on.
You have no problem letting Apple collecting your location WITHOUT your consent?
Absolutely not. It was very inaccurate information and only served to better locate you at towers and on GPS when you wanted it. It's not like it had any information on what store you shopped at, and even if it did, it wasn't information that was transferred anywhere off the actual phone.
People are worked up over nothing.
2011 is going to be the year of the lawsuits.
This part is true.