Apple faces lawsuit over iPhone data security
updated 07:15 pm EST, Tue February 1, 2011
Plaintiffs accuse company of violating laws
Apple now faces yet another lawsuit involving the iPhone, as a California-based plaintiff accuses the company of violating privacy and business laws. Attorneys argue that Apple provides private data to third-party companies that can be used to identify specific iPhone users, without ever asking the user to agree to release the information.
The company is accused of enabling Unique Device Identification (UDID) numbers to be transferred to application developers, who can allegedly view the user's browsing history on the smartphone. The complaint suggests marketers have the ability to access private browsing information regarding sensitive subjects such as "sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, drug rehabilitation.... to search for jobs, seek out new romantic partners, engage in political activity..."
Analysts still question the veracity of such claims, as UDIDs are not universally viewed as personal information. In an e-mail statement provided to InformationWeek, the plaintiff's law firm, Milberg LLP, argued that transferring the UDIDs "would allow the recipient to identify exactly what a user is browsing and, together with other information, where they are at any given time."
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
Guess what?
Macs and Windows PCs can be uniquely identifiable too. This is a non-issue. It's necessary for a lot of computing tasks. If an app uses this for nefarious purposes, sue the app developer.