27,000 South Koreans Sue Apple

jfruhlinger writes "You may have already forgotten the iPhone location-tracking furor, but 27,000 South Koreans haven't! They (or the lawyers recruiting them) have launched a class action suit against Apple due to the 'emotional distress' suffered. The litigants are seeking around $1,000 apiece in damages. From the article: 'Apple has faced complaints and criticisms since it said in April that its iPhones were storing locations of nearby cellphone towers and Wi-Fi hot spots for up to a year. Such data can be used to create a rough map of the device owner's movements.'"

Comments

Shoulda bought a Samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it weird that Korea being home to Samsung and LG is where this lawsuit is happening?
Take that, apple.

Re:Shoulda bought a Samsung

[mjwx]

Actually, no... I would bet Samsung (by virtue of owning basically everything significant on the peninsula) was easily able to round up and encourage these "plaintiffs" for the lawsuit, as a sort of counter-strike for what Apple is doing in Germany. I would be shocked if they weren't somehow directly involved in this.

Or perhaps Korean's aren't as blinded as other nations by blatant fanboyism and actually expect companies to respect their freedom.

For years Microsoft has been sued over it's anti competitive actions in Korea, I'm willing to bet they aren't the only ones, even Samsung has been indited on collusion charges before.

But hey, it's easier to create a conspiracy then to admit that Apple broke the law and people are justifiably angry over it.

Give me a break

[bonch]

Emotional distress? Give me a break. This is just a bunch of ambulance chasers trying to cash in on what has already been dismissed as a non-issue. Yes, the iPhone tracks the locations and strengths of cellular towers.

Re:Give me a break

[Njovich]

Yes, and Apple would never abuse the courts in such a vile way! Give me a break. Also, how the hell is this a non issue? Yes it is just cellular tower locations. Of the cellular towers you were traveling near. This way, it allows anyone to see the route you travelled, timestamped, just by having access to your phone. You do not see any privacy issue with that?

Re:Give me a break

[dyingtolive]

To be fair, 'macfag' is kind of offensive, and contains a pejorative. The correct term is iFag.

Re:Give me a break

[HungryHobo]

Just to be clear: no matter what phone you have your cell company already knows exactly where you are and where you've been. there was an article a while back about someone filing a FOI request and finding that their cell company had their location for the last 6 months.

when someone goes missing the police often request the data.

After a student went missing from the local uni they contacted his mobile phone company who were able to show the approximate path he took along with the last known location, sadly a bridge popular for suicides.

Re:Give me a break

[UnknowingFool]

What it has to do with the issue is that was the nature of the data that iPhones were logging which people said was Apple "tracking" them. That explained why some people's data was so inconsistent seemingly recording all their movements one day and then skipping months. The question is whether you believe them. Apple says the data was never transmitted to Apple and remained on the phone. Your cell carrier definitely tracks by the way.

Re:Give me a break

[jo_ham]

No, it really doesn't.

As has been shown repeatedly, you *might* be able to get some idea of the rough area of the country you were in, but someone trying to actively pin down their location over time using this data had a serious problem doing so - it's very erratic and not at all like the "flashing dot on map with traced line" that people are expecting as often seen on CSI.

Also, people cannot access this data if all they have is your phone *unless* you don;t have it pin-locked. You need to access the file after it has been copied over to the computer the phone syncs with, *not* from the phone itself.

Now, if you have the phone and it's not locked you can simply back it up to a machine with iTunes and get the file, but if you don't know the passcode then your only option is to boot it in recovery mode, which will allow you to set it up on the machine but only by wiping all the data and factory restoring to defaults.

User error

[Anonymous Coward]

If their iPhones were tracking them then they were probably just holding them wrong.

Dear Korean Friends

[Compaqt]

I've come to the belated realization that iPhones and (for the most part) Android phones are hardly more than devices for tracking your every move, thought, and desire for the purpose of selling stuff to you.

It's too bad you got taken in by the rows of shiny icons.

Also, in South Korea, only old people use iPhones.

It is pretty impressive how Apple deflected that

[_xeno_]

It is pretty impressive how Apple was able to wriggle out of that one. Nope, your phone "isn't tracking you," it's just a cache of cell towers used to speed GPS.

OK, fine. Then why does their privacy policy still allow Apple to collect your location data?

Oh, because that's for sending you local ads if you use an app that uses iAd, and for building Apple's database of Wi-Fi access points and GPS coordinates to allow iDevices without GPS to generate a location. (To provide local ads for apps that use iAd. Also for the user's benefit on occasion.)

But apparently that's OK, because we poor peons no longer have access to the location data Apple's recording, which includes a unique identifier so that they can track iDevices.

No problem at all with that, apparently.

this is a

[wervr]

legal zerg rush

Re:going broke

[EraserMouseMan]

$20M is a rounding error of a rounding error to Apple. Apple has more money and power than most nations.

Re:Possibly distressing in some countries

[93 Escort Wagon]

North Koreans would have a valid complaint here. If they had cell phone towers.

Typical imperialist revisionism. Beloved Leader Kim Jong Il invented cellular technology, you mindless tool of capitalism.

Re:YOU KNOW THEY EAT THEIR DOGS ??

[godrik]

Reading the wikipedia article you actually link will tell you they do not eat THEIR dog, but some dogs that are raised in order to be eaten. That's no different from eating rabbit (that are considered both pets and food in different country and sometimes in the same countries) or horses.

What is the problem of eating animals that are considered pets by others? If I take a cow as my pet, will you stop eating cows ? Obviously not. What animals are considered food or pets depend entirely on culture. Biologically speaking, we can eat pretty much anything that is biologically considered alive (well, some would make us damn sick...)

Besides, eating dog is not so common in South Korea.

Finally, I eat snails. Spiders are eaten in some parts of africa. Cinamon rolls are eaten in america. Everybody eats some food that is considered weird in some other part of the world.

Let's just accept it and move on...

The rest of us are too busy.

[Beelzebud]

The rest of us are too busy entering all of our personal information into the advertising giant Facebook and Google+, to care about our privacy rights.

Re:Rotten apples

[grapeape]

Shh were all supposed to be apple haters here...google does the same but with them its because they love us and want to protect us.

Re:Koreans really don't have a valid opinion on an

[IKnwThePiecesFt]

Because one can be disproven, and the other can't? Don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist, but fan death and god are hardly in the same category.