We all remember the infamous “Apple’s tracking my movements and is going to follow me around town with a camera” fiasco, don’t we?
Assuming you’ve not been living under a rock for the last few months – and Apple’s GPS data tells me you haven’t – then you’ll remember that Apple’s iOS devices were accused of keeping tabs on users’ locations and storing the information in an unencrypted file on said users’ computers.
Well, as it turns out, one South Korean iPhone user has forced Apple to cough up a spot of compensation, though we aren’t exactly talking mega-bucks…
As Reuters reports, Apple Korea was ordered to pay up 1 million Korean Won as compensation to a Kim Hyung-suk who, it just so happens, is a lawyer.
“In May, Apple Korea was ordered by the court to pay 1 million won ($946) in compensation to Kim Hyung-suk, a lawyer, two officials at Changwon District Court told Reuters on Thursday. They declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Kim’s law firm, Mirae Law, said Apple made payment last month. Steve Park, a spokesman for Apple Korea declined to comment.”
While $946 isn’t a big deal to Apple at all, it’s the precedent this sets that must concern their (admittedly huge) legal team.
In fact, sueapple.co.kr is a website set up to start a class action lawsuit against the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch creators – a site that was so busy it ground to a halt under a barrage of hits.
Apple released an updated version of iOS in order to prevent such information from being collected in such huge quantities, as well as improving its anonymity.
We’re sure that won’t stop the vultures lawyers from smelling blood, though.