Apple employee sues company for allegedly spying on personal worker devices

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Apple hit by employee spying allegations in lawsuit

Apple store logo on December 30, 2011 in New York City. It is the world's largest publicly traded company designs and sells consumer electronics and computer products.
(Image credit: Songquan Deng via Shutterstock)
  • Apple is facing claims of illegal employee monitoring in a new lawsuit
  • The lawsuit claims employees are also prevented from discussing working conditions
  • Separate complaints allege compensation differences based on sex

An employee is suing Apple on behalf of the state of California for allegedly illegally monitoring worker devices and accounts, while also hindering their free speech by restricting their discussion of compensation and working conditions.

The suit, filed by Amar Bhakta, states that software required to be installed on employee personal devices gives Apple excessive permissions to access personal emails alongside photo libraries and data relating to their health.

Bhakta filed the suit after being requested by Apple to remove details of his working conditions from his LinkedIn page, and prevented him from talking about his employment on a podcast.

Apple lawsuit

“Apple's surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the job market, and freedom of speech," the lawsuit stated.

Apple reportedly prefers its employees to use Apple devices for work purposes, but many employees prefer to use their own devices over the heavily restricted work-provided devices - but to do so the employees must install a piece of software that grants Apple permission to search all files on the device.

In response to the lawsuit, Apple issued a statement claiming that the case was without merit, stating “At Apple, we're focused on creating the best products and services in the world and we work to protect the inventions our teams create for customers.”

The same lawyers who are filing Bhakta’s claim also represent two employees who are suing Apple for gender-discriminatory pay differences for women in Apple’s engineering, marketing, and AppleCare sectors. Apple has also recently faced complaints that employees are illegally prevented from talking about sex bias and pay discrimination - complaints for which Apple has denied any wrongdoing.

Via Reuters

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict has been with TechRadar Pro for over two years, and has specialized in writing about cybersecurity, threat intelligence, and B2B security solutions. His coverage explores the critical areas of national security, including state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, critical infrastructure, and social engineering.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, providing him with a strong academic foundation for his reporting on geopolitics, threat intelligence, and cyber-warfare.

Prior to his postgraduate studies, Benedict earned a BA in Politics with Journalism, providing him with the skills to translate complex political and security issues into comprehensible copy.