Apple Must Face Privacy Suit Over App Data

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Apple Must Face Privacy Suit Over App Data

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Apple must face a privacy lawsuit by iPhone users who claimed the company wrongly gathered information about their interactions with apps it owns, a federal judge has ruled.

In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila in San Jose said the iPhone users' allegations against Apple, if proven true, could support some of the claims in their lawsuit -- including that Apple broke its contract with users by collecting data after they attempted to opt out.

The decision stemmed from a class-action complaint brought in November 2022 by New York resident Elliot Libman, and later joined by several other iPhone and iPad users.

Libman alleged that Apple gathered data from proprietary apps -- including Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Books and Apple News -- even after users turned off settings to allow tracking by apps, and to share iPhone or iPad analytics.

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The complaint cites research by app developers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, who reported that Apple collected data about people's interactions with its apps, even when the users hadn't agreed to share analytics information.

Apple has long said it doesn't consider that type of data collection to be “tracking,” given that the information originates with its own apps and services.

Apple urged Davila to dismiss the case for several reasons, including that users of its mobile devices consented to the data collection by accepting the software license agreement and privacy policy.

The users countered that they withdrew consent by toggling off settings that read “allow apps to request to track,” “share iPhone analytics,” or “share iPad analytics.”

But Apple argued that those privacy controls weren't applicable to data collected from its own apps.

Davila agreed with Apple regarding the setting “allow apps to request to track,” writing that Apple informs users that it requires app developers to ask permission before tracking activity “across apps or websites they don't own.”

That language, according to Davila, makes clear that the setting doesn't apply to Apple's collection of data from its proprietary apps.

But Davila rejected Apple's argument regarding the control to opt out of sharing analytics data.

“Unlike the 'Allow Apps to Request to Track' setting, the 'Share [Device] Analytics' setting is reasonably susceptible to more than one interpretation,” he wrote. “At this stage, giving plaintiffs the benefit of all reasonable inferences, plaintiffs have plausibly alleged they believed they withdrew consent to the contested data collection by disabling the 'Share [Device] Analytics' setting.”

Davila narrowed the case, at least for now, by dismissing some of the claims, but also said the users could attempt to reformulate those claims and bring them again.

The ruling highlights some of the complexities involved in creating privacy controls, according to Santa Clara University professor Eric Goldman.

“It shows that the more that services try to give users granular options, the more that can be weaponized against them,” Goldman says.

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September 27, 2024 at 03:41PM