Staff Sues Apple For Spying, Limiting Free Speech On Social Media

An Apple employee has filed a lawsuit alleging the tech giant illegally monitored workers' personal iCloud accounts and devices and restricted them from discussing their pay and working conditions in social media.

Plaintiff in the suit, Amar Bhakta, an advertising technology employee at Apple since 2020, claims that the company used its privacy policies to harm his career by prohibiting him from speaking publicly about digital advertising and forcing him to remove details about his Apple role from his LinkedIn profile, Semafor reported.

The lawsuit, filed in California state court on Sunday, states Apple requires employees to forgo personal privacy rights and asserts the company can conduct physical, video, and electronic surveillance of workers both at home and even after their employment ends with Apple.

Bhakta has filed the lawsuit under the California Private Attorneys General Act, which enables employees to sue their employers on behalf of the state for labor violations. If Apple is held responsible, the employee who filed the suit can keep 35% of the total penalties with the amount increasing based on the number of employees affected, Reuters reported.

"For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to Apple's all-seeing eye," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also highlights the company's policies that blur the line between work and personal life, requiring employees to use Apple-made devices for work, often including their personal devices linked to iCloud accounts, and agreeing to software that allows the company to monitor almost all activities on these devices, including real-time location tracking.

The suit claims that according to the company's confidential policy: "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."

Employees may bypass Apple's surveillance by using a company-provided device and a dedicated iCloud account for work purposes. But, the lawsuit alleges that the company "actively discourages" employees from using separate iCloud accounts for work.

Apple's policies have faced criticism from former employees, who have expressed concerns about the company's access to their personal information, in the past.

Apple has, meanwhile, denied the allegations adding that the lawsuit lacks merit. "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," the company said in a statement.

The company also pointed to holding yearly training for employees, informing them of their rights to talk about their working conditions. "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 company said.

Apple is also dealing with three other complaints from a U.S. labor board, alleging that the company illegally prevents employees from talking about issues such as sex bias and pay discrimination, including by restricting their access to social media and the Slack messaging app at work.