iPhone location tracker-17-March-2011

Federal lawsuit filed against Apple for location tracking

Posted in News on 26/04/2011 by James Britton

4s

Apple certainly is heading to the court rooms a lot these days. On April 22, Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, filed for a judge’s order to bar the collection of user location data on Apple’s iOS devices. They are also seeking to represent a class action lawsuit which could include up to 30 million iOS users in America.

The plaintiffs:

Ajjampur and Devito are also asking for refunds because they wouldn’t have bought their products had they known about the feature, Mayer said. The complaint says the alleged location collection violates federal computer fraud laws and consumer fraud and deceptive trade practice laws in many states. The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive damages for alleged negligent misrepresentation.

If you recall my personal experience with iPhone location tracking, the data showed only very general time and location information and in many cases, was completely inaccurate. Apple would be best to respond to this quickly and quietly by releasing a software update that has the location tracking log disabled by default and make tracking opt-in.

So far, Apple’s only response has been a terse email from Steve Jobs:

We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

Apple should be more transparent about how and why this information is being collected but does it warrant a Federal case?

[via Bloomberg]



  • Jeff g.

    Leave apple alone!

  • just me

    Somebody just wants money. Suprise, suprise….

  • Tony_staley

    Typical yank mentality, you’d sue someone for sneezing. The rest of the world think you are idiots because of this. Grow up an Just don’t buy it.

  • Tony_staley

    Typical yank mentality, you’d sue someone for sneezing. The rest of the world think you are idiots because of this. Grow up an Just don’t buy it.

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James Britton

James first bit into Apple when his mom and dad bought an Apple IIe in 1986. He switched to Wintel in the mid 90s when Apple was in a tailspin and back again to an iBook in 2005 when things were looking brighter. Hopefully there is no turning back to the dark side now.

If you're a hard core fanboy, you can follow James' antics on twitter or personal blog.