Apple accused of snooping on workers’ iPhones in new lawsuit

Apple Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged Employee Surveillance and Speech Suppression

A California Apple employee has launched a federal lawsuit claiming the tech giant engages in invasive surveillance practices and actively stifles employee speech. Amar Bhakta, the plaintiff, alleges that Apple compels employees to waive their right to privacy by accessing personal data on company-managed devices, including their personal iPhones.

Apple encourages employees to use their own iPhones for work, but with a catch. The lawsuit claims that the personal devices, once connected to Apple’s internal management software, are subjected to comprehensive monitoring. This includes access to emails, photos, videos, notes, and other personal information, which the company claims is subject to search at any time according to policy. The complaint goes further, alleging that employees are even required to link their personal iCloud accounts, effectively allowing Apple to track their location data and other private information outside of working hours.

The lawsuit accuses Apple of violating California law by requiring employees to consent to a policy permitting "physical, video, and electronic surveillance." This policy, according to Bhakta, also grants Apple the right to search both Apple and non-Apple devices on "company premises," a clause that raises concerns about the potential for monitoring even within a worker’s home office.

Painting a bleak picture of the work environment, Bhakta asserts in the lawsuit: "For Apple’s employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden… It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are ever subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye."

Beyond surveillance, Bhakta accuses Apple of implementing "illegal" wage clawback policies and broadly suppressing employee speech. He cites instances where Apple allegedly prohibited him from speaking publicly about his experience in digital advertising and forced him to remove details about his Apple employment from his LinkedIn profile. This echoes a recent accusation by the National Labor Relations Board in November that Apple actively prevents employees from discussing pay equity.

In response to these allegations, Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock stated, "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. 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. We strongly disagree with these claims and believe they lack merit.”