Image via CrunchBaseApple has been dragged into a new major lawsuit once again, this time Apple has been accused to be using its devices, like iPad and iPhone, to not only track their users’ location data along with personal information but also sharing it with other mistrusted third-party advertisers. Apple is further also blamed to not only helping these third-party advertisers but also supporting them for the "intentional taking and transmitting" of this user data. This is a very major allegation and the lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico. The lawsuit has also mentioned other services, including Pandora Media and The Weather Channel, with similar allegation and also has left a kind of door open to enlist more companies too.
The lawsuit was filed by Mr. Lymaris M. Rivera Diaz, who has made above mentioned allegation to respective companies along with the mention that they also use this location history and Unique Device Identifier (UDID) "without consumers' knowledge or any sort of consent." He further addressed that this discrete data is acquired by the third-party advertisers, which make use of it to track a "mobile device users' interests and likes on the Internet." The lawsuit has almost the same concerns which were pointed out in a Wall Street Journal report over suspicious mobile apps, and also comprehend the very recent and largely raised concerns regarding iOS and Android location tracking debacle.
Many users are raising concerns in this regard; several other users also filed lawsuits against Apple in these recent months. One of the lawsuits, filed in New York in May, is also against the same companies; Apple, Pandora, and Backflip Studios, which purposefully make third-party information to share personal data of the user with third-party advertisers, as mentioned by Apple Insider. Another lawsuit was filed by two other users which also imply Apple caches the user location history, this one was reported by Bloomberg. Adding to the list, just last December’s lawsuit, filed in New York, also made the same allegations against not only Apple and Pandora but also Backflip, The Weather Channel and Dictionary.com. for sharing the user data with third party advertisers without their consent.
The latest update of Apple’s iOS to version 4.3.3 is meant to address some of these allegations which imply the location data cache being exploitable on iPhones and 3G-enabled iPads.
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