Apple illegally spying on employees’ personal devices, muting salary conversations: lawsuit

Apple has been accused in a new lawsuit of illegally monitoring its employees’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while barring them from discussing their wages and working conditions.

The complaint filed in California state court on Sunday by Amar Bhakta, who works in digital advertising for Apple, alleges the company requires employees to install software on personal devices they use for work allowing Apple to access their emails. 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 from engaging in legally protected whistleblowing.

Bhakta, who has worked for Apple since 2020, says he was banned 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 are chilling, and thus also unlawfully inhibit employee whistleblowing, competition, employee freedom of movement in the labor market, and freedom of speech,” the lawsuit states.

Apple in a statement provided by a spokesman said that the allegations in the lawsuit have no merit and that its workers are trained annually on their rights to discuss their working conditions.

“At Apple, we’re focused on creating the world’s best products and services, and we work to protect the inventions our teams create for customers,” the company said.

Attorneys 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 US labor board alleging it illegally prevented employees from discussing issues such as sexual bias and pay discrimination with each other and the media, including restricting their use of social media and the 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.