Apple sued by employees for overstepping surveillance, suppressing speech, and monitoring personal devices
Apple digital advertising employee Amar Bhakta has sued Apple Inc., accusing it of forcing employees to give up personal privacy and implementing surveillance, even at home. The lawsuit claims that Apple requires employees to delete LinkedIn information, prohibits public discussion of work content, and mandates consent to monitor data on personal devices. Apple denies the allegations, stating that the surveillance policy only applies to company devices and faces other complaints of gender and pay discrimination. If it loses, it may have to pay fines
According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Apple digital advertising employee Amar Bhakta has sued Apple (AAPL.US), claiming that the company forces employees to give up personal privacy and implements monitoring even at home.
Bhakta claims that Apple forced him to delete work-related information from his LinkedIn page and prohibited him from discussing the digital advertising field at public events.
Additionally, Apple requires employees to use only Apple devices during work hours and encourages them to use Apple products on personal devices as well. Once employees handle work content on personal devices and iCloud accounts, Apple requires them to agree to the company's monitoring of all data, including emails, photos, videos, notes, etc.
The lawsuit states: "Apple's monitoring policies and practices suppress employees' reporting, competition, freedom of movement in the job market, and freedom of speech, thereby illegally restricting these freedoms."
Apple subsequently denied all allegations, stating that the policies cited by the employee refer to devices "managed or owned by Apple," and no company would allow unidentified devices to access its network storing privileged information.
Apple is also facing at least three complaints from the U.S. Labor Board, accusing it of illegally preventing employees from discussing issues such as gender discrimination and pay discrimination among themselves and with the media, including restricting their use of social media and the workplace messaging application Slack. The company denies any wrongdoing.
The lawsuit is filed under the California Private Attorney General Act. If Apple loses, it may be required to pay fines to Bhakta and all affected employees