27,000 South Koreans Sue Apple For $26M Over iPhone’s Location Services

Apple gets sued over location tracking once again, only this time, the lawsuit is filed by a group of 27,000 South Koreans! The protesting group claims that iPhone’s location services are violating their privacy and are now seeking a sum of $26 million in compensation, that’s like $948 CDN (1 Million Korean Won) per person. One of their lawyers Kim Hyeong-seok was awarded this amount by Apple when he personally sued the company over iPhone privacy, hence he feels the same amount should be paid to every person filing the lawsuit.

However, Apple is yet to give out am official statement regarding the lawsuit. The Cupertino office has already declined that location data is no longer being stored on iOS devices and every information is strongly encrypted. Looking at the history, Korean courts are known for being stingy when it comes to awarding compensations, however this case could turn out totally different and Apple might actually get in trouble.

The iPhone location tracking file was found in April in earlier builds of iOS 4. The bug was officially admitted by Apple and was addressed with the release of iOS 4.3.3 the following month.

Hearings in the Korean case are expected to begin in October or November.

[Via]

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