Lawsuit alleges Apple is monitoring employees’ iPhones

Apple has been accused of illegally monitoring its workers’ personal iPhones and iCloud accounts.

A lawsuit was filed in California state court on Sunday by Amar Bhakta, who has worked in digital advertising for Apple since 2020.

Bhakta mentioned that workers need to set up software on their gadgets to access their email, photos, health data, ‘smart home’ information, and other personal details.

The accusation also claims that Apple stops employees from talking about work conditions, sharing wage details, or reporting potential legal breaches.

According to the lawsuit, ‘Apple’s monitoring rules and actions discourage, and therefore unlawfully restrict, employees from whistleblowing, engaging in fair competition, freely seeking job opportunities, and expressing their opinions.’

An Apple spokesperson has said it strongly disagrees with the claims in the lawsuit.

‘Every employee has the right to discuss their wages, hours and working conditions and this is part of our business conduct policy, which all employees are trained on annually,’ they said.

The new lawsuit was filed under a unique California law that allows workers to sue their employers on behalf of the state and keep 35 percent of any penalties that are recovered. 

Lawyers for Bhakta also represent two women who filed a lawsuit in June accusing Apple of systematically underpaying female workers in its engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions. 

Apple has said it is committed to inclusion and pay equity. 

Bhakta said he was barred from discussing his work on podcasts and instructed to remove information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile. 

‘In accordance with Apple’s policy, he asked for permission to engage in public speaking about his area of expertise: Digital Advertising. Apple forbade it,’ the document reads. 

The complaint alleges that the company ‘requires employees to agree that they have no right to privacy in their Private Life Data.’

That means, according to the lawsuit, that ‘Apple can engage in physical, video, and electronic surveillance of them and that it can, as it wishes, search both Apple and non-Apple devices and other property while an employee is on ‘company premises.”

California labor laws prohibit an employer from controlling the nonwork aspects of its employees’ lives. 

‘For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye,’ the lawsuit reads. 

Bhakta cited ‘Apple’s Speech Suppression Policies’ as a large factor for his complaint, noting that the employees are prohibited from discussing potential work problems with other employees.

That includes, ‘unfair treatment, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or even sexual assault.’

‘Similarly, Apple’s Speech Suppression Policies prohibit Apple employees from bringing to light compensation issues, including underpayment or under-leveling of people of color, women, older workers, or any other group,’ reads the lawsuit.

‘The secrecy permits the wrongdoing to continue.’ 

The complaint criticizes Apple for its public declaration for respecting human rights, but ‘does not extend this respect to its own employees.’

Apple was recently sued by a consumer group Which? that claimed the tech giant breached competition law by ‘forcing its iCloud services on customers.’

The complaint t says Apple has encouraged users to sign up to iCloud to store photos, videos and other data and is therefore favoring its own products, while simultaneously making it difficult to use alternative products, ultimately stifling competition.

Which? says Apple does not allow customers to store or back up all of their phone’s data with a third-party provider, and users of its iOS operating system have to pay for the service when the amount of data being stored goes over the 5GB free limit.