http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/12/28/apple-sued-over-mobile-app-privacy/

December 28, 2010

Apple Sued Over Mobile App Privacy

By Yukari Iwatani Kane

Apple and four app developers have been hit with a lawsuit that alleges violations of computer fraud and privacy laws by allowing ad networks to access users' personal information.

The suit was filed on Thursday by the law firm KamberLaw on behalf of Jonathan Lalo, a Los Angeles County resident, in federal court in San Jose, California. It seeks class-action status.

The suit was filed less than a week after the Wall Street Journal [1] published an article raising privacy concerns over the transmission of personal information based on a study of 101 mobile apps on Apple's iPhone and phones that run Google's Android operating system. The complaint, which sites the Journal investigation, names app developers Pandora, Dictionary.com, The Weather Channel and Backflip Studios, the maker of the Paper Toss app, as well as Apple.

Spokeswomen for Apple and Pandora and a spokesman for The Weather Channel declined to comment on the suit. Dictionary.com and Backflip did not respond to a request for comment.

The complaint accuses Apple of allowing ad networks to track users' app activity based on a unique identification number. It also charged that apps were selling other information to ad networks including "users' location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views."

"Apple claims to review each application before offering it to its users, purports to have implemented app privacy standards and claims to have created 'strong privacy protections' for its customers," the suit said, adding that plaintiffs did not consent to their personal indentifying information being provided to third parties.

The lawsuit asks for class action status on behalf of users who have downloaded an app on their iPhone or iPad between Dec. 1, 2008 and Dec. 23, 2010. It also seeks damages, restitution and an injunction that in part requires defendants to provide "notice and choice to consumers regarding defendants' data collection, profiling, merger and deanonymization activities."

KamberLaw, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, specializes in consumer privacy and security. The firm sued online movie company Netflix for exposing users' personal information in a contest designed to improve movie recommendations on its website. That suit was settled in March.

The firm, whose lead attorney is Scott Kamber, is also known for a class-action lawsuit against Facebook for its "Beacon" program which monitored and published what site users were buying and renting from Blockbuster, Overstock and others. That suit was settled for $9.5 million.

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576020083703574602.html