Apple is accused of illegally monitoring its employees’ personal iPhones and iCloud accounts.
A lawsuit was filed in California court on Sunday by Amar Bhakta, who has worked in digital advertising for Apple since 2020.
Bhakta stated that employees are required to install software on their devices that provides access to their email, photo libraries, health and “smart home” data and other personal information.
The complaint also alleges that Apple prohibits employees from discussing working conditions, disclosing wage information or reporting suspected legal violations.
“Apple’s surveillance policies and practices also unlawfully chill and restrict employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the labor market, and freedom of expression,” the lawsuit said.
An Apple spokesperson said it strongly disagrees with the lawsuit’s claims.
“Every employee has the right to discuss their pay, hours and working conditions and this is part of our business conduct policy, on which all employees are trained annually,” they said.
An Apple employee is suing the tech giant, claiming it is illegally monitoring its employees’ iPhones
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 recovered fines.
Attorneys 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 inclusivity and equal pay.
Bhakta said he was not allowed to discuss his work on podcasts and was ordered to remove information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile.
“In accordance with Apple policy, he requested permission to speak publicly about his field of expertise: Digital Advertising. Apple banned it,” the document said.
The complaint alleges that the company “requires employees to agree that they have no right to privacy regarding their private life information.”
That means, according to the lawsuit, that “Apple may engage in physical, video, and electronic surveillance of them and may, at its discretion, search both Apple and non-Apple devices and other property while an employee is on” company visit’. terrain.”
California labor laws prohibit an employer from controlling the non-work aspects of its employees’ lives.
“For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. It’s a prison garden. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to the all-seeing eye of Apple,” the lawsuit reads.
Bhakta cited “Apple’s speech suppression policy” as a major factor in his complaint, noting that the employees are prohibited from discussing potential work issues with other employees.
That includes “unfair treatment, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or even assault.”
“Similarly, Apple’s Speech Suppression Policy prohibits Apple employees from exposing compensation issues, including underpayment or under-leveling of people of color, women, older workers, or any other group,” the lawsuit reads.
“The secrecy allows the misconduct to continue.”
The complaint criticizes Apple for its public statement of respecting human rights, but “does not extend that respect to its own employees.”
Apple was recently sued by a consumer group Which? which alleged that the tech giant had breached competition law by ‘forcing its iCloud services on customers’.
The complaint alleges that Apple has encouraged users to sign in to iCloud to store photos, videos and other data and therefore favors its own products, while at the same time making it difficult to use alternative products, thereby stifling competition is ultimately suppressed.
Which one? says that Apple does not allow customers to store or back up all the data on their phone to a third-party provider, and that users of the iOS operating system will have to pay for the service when the amount of data stored exceeds the free limit exceeds 5 GB.