Apple has paid a multi-million-dollar settlement to a student after her under-repair iPhone was used to post explicit nude photos and a sex video from her phone on her Facebook account. The photos and video were posted by two repair technicians working at an Apple iPhone repair facility in California run by Pegatron.
The grave privacy violation took place in 2016 when a university student in Oregon had sent her phone to Apple for repair. As the phone was being fixed, two technicians posted 10 photos of the student “in various stages of undress and a sex video” found within the phone onto her Facebook account.
The post on Facebook was made in a way that suggested that she uploaded the content herself. The images were removed after the student was informed of the post by her friends.
As per the legal filings spotted by The Telegraph, the exact amount of the settlement was not disclosed. However, it has been described as a “multimillion-dollar” sum, as the lawyers for the individual demanded $5m (£3.6m) in settlements.
The confidentiality agreement left many details of the incident hidden. What is known is that the two employees have been fired after an “exhaustive” investigation by Apple. Apple has also been reimbursed for the settlement by Pegatron. Pegatron and its insurers, who refused to pay the bill, have now settled the matter privately.
MacDailyNews Take: Yikes! Another reminder that if you don’t want nude photos and videos online, don’t take them in the first place! That said, certainly, a monetary payment was appropriate in this case as Apple’s marketing suggests we should trust the company and their surrogates with security and privacy of Apple devices at all times, including when sent in for repair.