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A group of approximately 27,000 South Koreans suing with Apple, for £ 15.8 million for what they claim is a violation of privacy from the collection of information about the iPhone’s location.
Every man in a suit seeking one million won (£ 568) as compensation, Kim Sok Heng, one of their attorneys announced today.
He said that they aimed for Apple and its South Korean unit “protect privacy” rights.
A representative of Apple in Seoul declined to comment.
Apple, faced complaints and criticism, as he showed in April that his Iphones store locations near the base stations of mobile phone and Wi-Fi hot spots for up to a year.
Such data can be used to create a rough map of displacement device owner.
Apple, also showed that a software error caused Iphones continue to send anonymous data about the location of the company’s servers, even if the location service arrangement have been disabled.
The company said they will not keep data on the phones for more than seven days, will encrypt data and suspends the process of copying files on users’ computers. He also corrected an error with free software updates.
Mr. Kim, a lawyer, took for Apple to court earlier this year for iPhone privacy and was awarded one million won.
He said that he expects the first reading a new event will be held in October or November.
If the court in the southern city of Changwon will rule in favor of the plaintiffs, the total amount of compensation would amount to about 27600000000 won (£ 15.6million).
Apple – the most expensive company in the U.S. – earned $ 7.31billion (£ 4.45billion) in its third fiscal quarter.
Mr. Kim said that the decision to claim damages only one million won per person shows that the South Korean courts do not usually amounts higher than their counterparts in the U.S.
He said 26,691 claimants have been listed in the civil lawsuit filed earlier today. Another 921 lawyers and minors must get parental consent before they can join, Mr. Kim. He expects to take about two weeks.
Communications regulator in South Korea earlier this month ordered local operations from Apple, to pay three million won (£ 1700) fine for what it considers a violation of the laws of the country’s location information.
