viernes, 29 de abril de 2011

Local iPhone users sue Apple on info harvesting - JoongAng Daily

A group of Korean iPhone users filed a class action lawsuit against U.S. telecom giant Apple Inc. and its Korean unit, yesterday, over the firms allegedly illegal collection of users location data. It will be the first such case in the country.

We learned that our whereabouts over the past six months were entirely revealed. Its a privacy violation, said legal representatives of 29 plaintiffs in a statement submitted to the Seoul Central District Court. The location information harvested by the iPhone is not encoded and is accessible to anybody who uses an iPhone tracker program. The data can be an invasion of private life and be abused for crime.

The defendant [Apple Korea] collected users location information through iPhones without their consent and refused to disclose how it was used and why the data was collected. This violates the countrys Act on the Protection, Use, Etc., of Location Information, they said, demanding a total of 23.2 million won ($21,600) in compensation.

Last week, two British experts revealed that iPhones store information about the movement and location of their owners without their knowledge, sparking mobile privacy concerns throughout the world. This data is stored on the device in the system file called consolidated.db.

In the U.S., two citizens have taken a similar action earlier this week.

Koreas communications authorities also launched a probe into Apples controversial collection of geo-positioning information.


Yonhap

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