Apple employee sues company for allegedly spying on personal worker devices

Date:
Tue, 03 Dec 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Description:
Apple facing allegations of spying on its employees in a new lawsuit filed in
California.

FULL STORY

An employee is suing Apple on behalf of the state of California for allegedly
illegally monitoring worker devices and accounts, while also hindering their
free speech by restricting their discussion of compensation and working
conditions. 

The suit, filed by Amar Bhakta, states that software required to be installed
on employee personal devices gives Apple excessive permissions to access
personal emails alongside photo libraries and data relating to their health. 

Bhakta filed the suit after being requested by Apple to remove details of his
working conditions from his LinkedIn page, and prevented him from talking
about his employment on a podcast. Apple lawsuit 

Apple's surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully
restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement
in the job market, and freedom of speech," the lawsuit stated. 

Apple reportedly prefers its employees to use Apple devices for work 
purposes, but many employees prefer to use their own devices over the heavily
restricted work-provided devices - but to do so the employees must install a
piece of software that grants Apple permission to search all files on the
device. 

In response to the lawsuit, Apple issued a statement claiming that the case
was without merit, stating At Apple, we're focused on creating the best
products and services in the world and we work to protect the inventions our
teams create for customers. 

The same lawyers who are filing Bhaktas claim also represent two employees 
who are suing Apple for gender-discriminatory pay differences for women in
Apples engineering, marketing, and AppleCare sectors. Apple has also recently
faced complaints that employees are illegally prevented from talking about 
sex bias and pay discrimination - complaints for which Apple has denied any
wrongdoing. 

Via Reuters

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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/apple-employee-sues-company-for-alleged
ly-spying-on-personal-worker-devices

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