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Music Privacy Software The Almighty Buck The Courts Apple

Apple Sued By iTunes Customers Over Alleged Data Misuse (cnet.com) 29

Three iTunes customers have filed a lawsuit against Apple accusing the company of sending personal user data to third parties to boost its revenues. "It is alleged that Apple is selling, renting or disclosing full names, addresses, genres of music and specific titles of songs purchased on the iTunes Store app on iPhones without consent or notification," reports CNET. From the report: According to documents filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday, Apple does this "to supplement its revenues and enhance the formidability of its brand in the eyes of mobile application developers," the lawsuit alleges. "None of the information pertaining to the music you purchase on your iPhone stays on your iPhone," the lawsuit further alleges. "While Apple profits handsomely from its unauthorized sale, rental, transmission and/or disclosure of its customers' Personal Listening Information, it does so at the expense of its customers' privacy and statutory rights."

First reported by Bloomberg, the plaintiffs -- Leigh Wheaton from Rhode Island, and Jill Paul and Trevor Paul from Michigan -- allege third parties then use this data to append several more categories, including age, gender, income, educational background and marital status. This "enhanced" data is then allegedly sold on to other third parties, the lawsuit says. The plaintiffs are representing other iTunes customers in their respective states, seeking $250 for Rhode Island class-action members under the Video, Audio, And Publication Rentals Privacy Act and $5,000 for Michigan class-action members under the Preservation of Personal Privacy Act.

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Apple Sued By iTunes Customers Over Alleged Data Misuse

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  • Considering that privacy is a luxury good [macrumors.com] now, if you'd bought the right iPhone app [businessinsider.com], they would have been able to tell you could afford it and would have left your data alone.

  • by radarskiy ( 2874255 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @10:54PM (#58670108)

    Is there any information on whom Apple allegedly sold the information to? For how much? How they categorize those sales in their 10-K?

    I can allege a lot of vague things, that doesn't mean anyone should believe me.

  • Apple doesn't know my age, and they don't know my income, so they are absolutely unable to give my age and income to anyone. Most likely the "data providers" are actually scam artists who charge idiot spammers for randomly built addresses, or for random extracts from a phone book with additional information made up.
    • by anegg ( 1390659 )

      Apple doesn't know my age, and they don't know my income, so they are absolutely unable to give my age and income to anyone.

      Apple is being accused of sharing the full name, address, and purchase details "genres of music and specific titles of songs purchased." Third parties then are accused of appending data from "... several more categories, including age, gender, income, educational background and marital status." to form a dataset that is then sold to still other third parties. So Apple wouldn't need to know your age or income in this scenario.

      If the claim is true, it would seem to contradict claims by Apple that any perso

  • I highly doubt Apple would violate my privacy for the sake of a bit of profit. I know because Tim Cook is constantly advocating for privacy, so this is something he would never allow to happen on his watch.
  • This is one of those situations where the details are so critical that it's not even worth forming an opinion yet.

    From the description of the suit, it sounds like some luddites who only think they know what's going on, but it would be fooling to decide either way right now.

    These kinds of cases should rightfully be terrifying to Apple, because if they are caught red handed selling people's info, then their entire "We heart your privacy" rhetoric, and one of the single biggest reasons to put up with Apple's i

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