Apple allegedly monitors employees' iPhones
An Apple employee has filed a lawsuit with a Californian court. He claims that the company is encouraging employees to give the company access to private smartphones and iCloud accounts.
Apple likes to advertise how important data protection is. For example, the iPhone stores a lot of information encrypted on the device - so that not even Apple itself has access. However, one employee accuses the company of not doing this for employees' smartphones.
For employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a garden with a wall. It's a prison yard.
Employees are entitled to an official company mobile phone. However, according to Bhakta, they are encouraged to use their private smartphone for work. This is then necessarily managed by Apple's internal software. The plaintiff claims that the employees are also sharing their personal iCloud account with the company.
Apple rejects accusations
The iPhone manufacturer denies to "The Verge" that it is breaking the law. Company spokesman Josh Rosenstock writes: "At Apple, we're focused on building the best products and services in the world, and we work to protect our teams' inventions for our customers."
We strongly deny these allegations and believe they are unfounded.
Rosenstock explicitly rejects Bhakta's additional accusations that Apple is restricting the freedom of speech of its employees: "Every employee has the right to speak about their wages, working hours and working conditions. This is part of our company policy, on which all employees receive annual training. We firmly reject these allegations and consider them to be unfounded."
This is not the first time that employees have made surveillance allegations against Apple. In 2021 Jacob Preston told "The Verge" about practices similar to those described by Amar Bhakta in his lawsuit.
My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.
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