One of Apple’s employees sued the company – in his lawsuit, he claims that the tech giant practices interference in the privacy of employees. At the same time, he spoke about other harassment that the brand allows against its staff.
It has been accused in a new lawsuit of illegally monitoring its workers’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while also barring them from discussing their pay and working conditions.
The complaint filed in California state court on Sunday by Amar Bhakta, who works in digital advertising for Apple, claims the company requires employees to install software on personal devices that they use for work allowing Apple to access their email, photo libraries, health and “smart home” data and other personal information.
At the same time, the lawsuit alleges, Apple imposes confidentiality policies that prohibit employees from discussing working conditions, including with the media, and engaging in legally protected whistleblowing.
Bhakta, who has worked for Apple since 2020, says he was barred from talking about his work on podcasts and instructed to remove information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile.
“Apple’s surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the job market, and freedom of speech,” the lawsuit said.
Apple in a statement provided by a spokesperson said the claims in the lawsuit lack merit and that its workers are trained annually on their rights to discuss their working conditions.
“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,” the company said.
Lawyers for Bhakta also represent two women who filed a lawsuit in June accusing Apple of systematically underpaying female workers in its engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions. Apple has said it is committed to inclusion and pay equity.
Apple is also facing at least three complaints from a U.S. labor board claiming it has illegally deterred employees from discussing issues such as sex bias and pay discrimination with each other and the media, including by restricting their use of social media and workplace messaging app Slack. The company has denied wrongdoing.
The new lawsuit was filed under a unique California law that allows workers to sue their employers on behalf of the state and keep 35% of any penalties that are recovered.
In a 28-page lawsuit, Amar Bhakta said the company is demanding that employees waive their right to privacy. The main complaint is that the company “pushes” staff to bring their own iPhones to work, which must be linked to the company’s services.
As a result, emails, photos, videos, notes, and other information become “searched by Apple.” The plaintiff also claims that the location of employees can be tracked even when they are out of the office.
«… The Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. This is the prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both at work and outside of it, are constantly monitored by the all-seeing eye of Apple,” the lawsuit says. According to the plaintiff, Apple requires employees to agree that it has the right to “carry out physical, video and electronic surveillance.”
in addition, it allows the company to track Apple and non-Apple devices throughout the company. According to unconfirmed information, this definition may also include the employee’s home office.
In addition, the lawsuit mentions wage delays and “suppression” of employees in relation to public statements about working at Apple. For example, Bhakta claims that the company banned him from talking about his experience in digital advertising and forced him to remove information about his experience at Apple from his LinkedIn profile. In addition, the National Labor Relations Board accused Apple of banning employees from talking about equal pay.
The company denied all accusations. Its spokesman Josh Rosenstock said in a message to The Verge that Apple strongly disagrees with these claims and considers them unfounded.
