iPhone Analytics: US privacy lawsuit against Apple partially fails
A lawsuit against Apple by users has been ongoing since 2022, alleging App Store info was collected despite opting out. The lawsuit is not progressing.
Excerpt from Apple advertisement on data protection: Analytics despite opt-out?
(Image: Apple)
For almost four years now, there has been an attempt to compel Apple through a class action lawsuit to collect less iPhone data – or at least pay compensation to users if it has demonstrably done so. But now, the responsible US judge has dismissed at least parts of the lawsuit. Apple has always stated that the plaintiffs' claims were "completely false." The US District Court for the Northern District of California has now partially agreed, according to a report by the legal news service Bloomberg Law.
Tracking through the App Store
The lawsuit concerns, among other things, whether Apple adheres to opt-in/opt-out rules. German-Canadian security researchers from the group Mysk had discovered in autumn 2022 that Apple appears to collect analytics data from its App Store even when users have objected to this. For this purpose, there is a central switch in iOS (and Apple's other operating systems) that is supposed to enable or disable analytics by the company.
That the App Store application needs to access Apple's servers is inherent to its nature – after all, these deliver its content. However, according to the Mysk analysis, which had decrypted the data traffic, the requests went in both directions. There were, accordingly, session IDs linked to a profile. Device information was transmitted, including keyboard language settings and available storage space. Apple also stored which app was viewed when and for how long. This is by no means unusual analytics data, but it was apparently collected even when tracking was supposed to be turned off.
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Plaintiffs get one last chance
Judge Edward J. Davila ruled on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg Law, that parts of the class action lawsuit be dismissed due to a potential violation of privacy. Among other things, the plaintiffs had based their claims on violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Constitution, and the US state's Unfair Competition Law. Apple was also accused of violating a Pennsylvania law that restricts electronic surveillance measures.
"There are serious doubts as to whether the plaintiffs can adequately plead their dismissed claims in light of the deficiencies addressed in this order," Davila stated. However, the proceedings are not entirely over for Apple. He prefers to err on the side of caution, the judge said, and is allowing the class action plaintiffs to amend and refile their complaint "one last time." The class action plaintiffs all represent users who had switched off the analytics function on iPhone and iPad. Among other things, the lawsuit accuses Apple of misleading users by implying that deactivating it would prevent Apple from collecting data from its own apps. In addition to the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, the Books app, and the Stocks app are also mentioned.
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