A new lawsuit has been filed against Apple, accusing the company of spying on its employees by accessing their personal iCloud accounts and non-work devices. The suit, filed in California state court, claims that Apple’s employment policies violate California law by requiring employees to give up their right to personal privacy.
The plaintiff, Amar Bhakta, a current Apple employee, alleges that the company’s policies are designed to monitor employees’ activities both on and off the job. Bhakta claims that Apple uses its privacy policies to harm his employment prospects, including forbidding him from participating in public speaking about digital advertising and forcing him to remove information from his LinkedIn page about his job at Apple.
The lawsuit contends that Apple’s policies push employees to meld their work and home lives digitally, giving the company knowledge of what employees are doing beyond their jobs. The suit alleges that Apple requires employees to use their personal iCloud accounts and Apple-made devices for work, which allows the company to access virtually anything happening on those devices, including real-time location data.
The lawsuit also claims that Apple’s policies actively discourage employees from using separate iCloud accounts for work-only purposes, making it difficult for employees to evade the company’s surveillance.
Apple has denied the claims, stating that every employee has the right to discuss their wages, hours, and working conditions and that this is part of their business conduct policy, which all employees are trained on annually.
The lawsuit is seeking damages and penalties under the California Private Attorneys General Act, which allows employees to sue on behalf of the state for labor violations. If found liable, Apple could be forced to pay penalties for each violation, multiplied by the number of employees affected.