“Apple Inc’s Korean unit has paid compensation to a user of its popular iPhone after collecting location data without consent, lawyers and court officials said, the first payout by the U.S. company over these complaints,” Ju-min Park and Hyunjoo Jin report for Reuters.
“In May, Apple Korea was ordered by the court to pay 1 million won [US$945] in compensation to Kim Hyung-suk, a lawyer, two officials at Changwon District Court told Reuters on Thursday,” Park and Jin report. “They declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.”
Park and Jin report, “Kim’s law firm, Mirae Law, said Apple made payment last month. Steve Park, a spokesman for Apple Korea declined to comment. Mirae Law said it was now preparing a class action lawsuit against Apple for the unauthorised data collection. A website for class action sign-up has been set up, but was paralyzed due to heavy traffic.”
“Apple released a software update in May to fix a problem that enabled its mobile devices to collect and store customers’ location data,” Park and Jin report. “The revelation that Apple’s iPhone collected data and stored it for up to a year has prompted renewed scrutiny of the nexus between location and privacy.”
Park and Jin report, “Google Inc’s Seoul office was raided in May on suspicion its mobile advertising unit AdMob had illegally collected location data without consent, in the latest setback to the Internet search firm’s Korean operations. Executives of both Apple and Google have said they did not abuse the information. Any class action may further pressure Apple in the home market of its key rival Samsung Electronics.”
Read more in the full article here.
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