Thursday, August 18, 2011

Apple being sued for nearly $26 million in South Korea

It came to light in April that Apple was storing location data from its iPhone and iPad users, for up to a year. Apparently a “bug” allowed Apple to collect anonymous data on their servers even when the location services were turned off. A later update fixed this problem where Apple now says that they only store location data for up to 7 days on iPhones, also that the data is being encrypted and not being stored on users computers. However, the damage has already been done.

In May, Kim Hyung-souk, a lawyer, won 1 million Won ($932) in compensation after he filed a case against Apple for breach of privacy. Earlier this month the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) ordered Apple to pay a 3 million Won fine for violating South Korea’s location information laws.

“Oh Byoung-cheol, a professor of information technology law at Seoul’s Yonsei University law school, said that the KCC ruling is likely to bolster the plaintiffs’ allegations of illegality by Apple and that could have an impact on possible cases in other countries,” reported Associated Press.

Yesterday, a group of 26,691 people (and a further 921 minors for whom a guardian’s permission is required) filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for compensation of 1 million Won each ($932). If the case is successful, Apple will end up paying $25.7 million. Meanwhile the lawyers are asking more people to join the case between now and the end of the month, as the first hearing will take place between October and November.

About Taimoor Hafeez

From auditing to editing, I now test and analyze the latest gadgets and games instead of the latest financial statements. Both jobs are equally intense and rewarding. In my free time you'll find me raiding in WoW or engineering in TF2.

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