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An Apple worker has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging it spies on its employee’s personal iCloud accounts and iPhones.
As reported by Semafor, the lawsuit filed Sunday claims Apple says it can “engage in physical, video and electronic surveillance” of employees, including accessing data on personal iPhones it “actively encourages” staff to work.
Apple refutes the claims of the lawsuit, which alleges several other employment law violations including free speech suppression and illegal clawback policies.
“Every employee has the right to discuss their wages, hours and working conditions and this is part of our business conduct policy, which all employees are trained on annually,” it says. “We strongly disagree with these claims and believe they lack merit.”
Apple accused of ‘prison yard’ surveillance against employees
Apple gives employees the choice of using Apple-owned devices or their personal phones for work, but the worker – Amar Bhakta – claims employees are pushed to use their own iPhones and allow the devices to be managed by the company.
“If you use your personal account on an Apple-managed or Apple-owned iPhone, iPad or computer, any data stored on the device (including emails, photos, video, notes and more), are subject to search by Apple,” an Apple policy says, according to the suit.
It also claims the company requires staff to use Apple-made devices for work and “actively discourages” work-only iCloud accounts, meaning that most Apple employees end up using personal devices as the company.
Bhakta alleges that he and other employees have been made to agree to software that allows their employer to surveil Apple and non-Apple devices while they are “on company premises”, which could include an employee’s home office – and access data including real-time location.
“For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden,” the suit continues. “It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye.”
Although Apple has publicly and historically said privacy is a “fundamental human right,” employees have questioned privacy practices for a number of years.
Speaking to The Verge in 2021, some employees claimed that keeping a separate work and personal phone is made virtually impossible by the company; and that they are told to have “no expectation of privacy when using your or someone else’s personal devices for Apple business.”
The latest lawsuit accuses Apple of requiring employees to “waive their inalienable right to privacy and autonomy…as a condition of their employment,” arguing it breaches California Labor Code.
What other accusations did the Apple employee make?
Apple also faces several further accusations with which it “strongly disagrees.”
Bhakta accuses Apple of prohibiting him from speaking publicly about his experience working at Apple and told him to remove information about the company and his work experience from his LinkedIn page, claiming that workers cannot freely discuss problems including “unfair treatment, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or even sexual assault” with colleagues or outside of the workplace.
In October, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accused Apple of illegally suppressing the ability of employees to advocate for better working conditions and pay equity on Slack and social media.
The suit said Apple’s alleged “Speech Suppression Policies” also limit the ability of workers like Bhakta to describe responsibilities and accomplishments to their future employer when exploring new job opportunities and prevent them from fully using their skills, knowledge, and experience acquired while working at Apple in a future role.
A third claim suggests Apple uses “illegal” wage clawback policies. California labor law currently prohibits an employer from clawing back earned wages – including Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Bhakta’s legal team argues Apple claws back RSU vests if it finds an employee has “materially breached” their employment agreement, including the disclosure of confidential company information.
His suit is filed under the California Private Attorneys General Act. If Apple is eventually found to have violated California’s Labor Code, it may be obligated to pay a penalty for each instance, multiplied by however many employees were affected.
