An Apple employee sued the company on Sunday evening, alleging the tech giant surveils its workforce and spies on workers using data from personal accounts and devices.
First reported by TRAFFIC LIGHTS, 28 page lawsuit filed in California Superior Court details how the plaintiff, Amar Bhakta, began working as a Technology/Digital Advertising Operations Manager for Apple in July 2020. According to Bhakta, working for Apple meant giving up his privacy rights and autonomy.
“Apple requires the use of Apple devices, software and services for work, including personal iCloud accounts,” Bhakta's complaint states.
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Regardless of whether Apple owns the device or the account or whether the employee chooses to use their own iPhone or iCloud accounts, Apple allegedly collects and uses their personal data — even when the employee is not at work.
“Apple may engage in physical, video and electronic surveillance,” according to Bhakta's complaint. It can also “search for Apple and non-Apple devices and other property,” even if the employee is in a home office.
The complaint further calls Apple's ecosystem “a prison yard… where employees, both on and off duty, are always subject to Apple's all-encompassing eye.”
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Bhakta also accused Apple of suppressing speech by barring him from talking about his work experiences on podcasts and telling him to remove information about his work on LinkedIn.
Apple Semaphore said that it disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit and that “every employee has the right to discuss wages, hours, and working conditions, and this is part of our business conduct policy, on which all employees are trained annually.”
Concerns about personal privacy have plagued Apple employees for years. In 2021, The Verge reported that Apple required employees to link their personal Apple IDs to their work accounts, causing personal files to end up on their work laptops.