“For Apple’s employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden,” the lawsuit claims. “It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are ever subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye.”
An Apple employee has filed a lawsuit claiming that the technology company monitors its workers personal devices, iCloud accounts, and communications, all while enforcing a blanket prohibition against employees discussing their pay and working conditions.
According to Reuters, the complaint was filed earlier this week in a California state court. The plaintiff, identified as Amar Bhakta, works with Apple’s digital advertising department.
In legal filings, attorneys for Bhakta say that Apple requires many of its employees to install software on personal devices that they use for work. This software allows Apple to access their email, photo galleries, health information, “smart home” data, and other personal and potentially sensitive information.
The lawsuit notes that many Apple employees are also subject to confidentiality agreements that prohibit the discussion of their working conditions with each other, and with the media. These agreements, attorneys say, also appear to forbid or penalize legally-protected instances of whistleblowing.
“For Apple’s employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden,” the lawsuit claims. “It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are ever subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye.”
“If you use your personal account on an Apple-managed or Apple-owned iPhone, iPad or computer, any data stored on the device (including emails, photos, video, notes and more), are subject to search by Apple,” the lawsuit alleges.
Bhakta, who has worked for Apple since 2020, says that he was told by Apple that he cannot discuss his work on podcasts. He was also instructed to remove information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile.
“Apple’s surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the job market, and freedom of speech,” the lawsuit alleges.
The Verge notes that the National Labor Relations Board recently levied similar accusations against Apple. In its own complaint, the N.L.R.B. claimed that Apple had tried to bar employees from creating a Slack channel called #community-pay-equity.
Apple, for its part, said that workers cannot use Slack or any platforms to discuss certain financial incentives, saying that such information includes “confidential and proprietary information.”
A spokesperson for Apple has since said that the lawsuit lacks merit.
“At Apple, we’re focused on creating the best products and services in the world, and we work to protect the inventions our teams create for customers,” Apple said in a statement. “Every employee has the right to discuss their wages, hours and working conditions and this is part of our business conduct policy, which all employees are trained on annually. We strongly disagree with these claims and believe they lack merit.”
Sources
Apple Accused of Silencing Workers, Spying on Personal Devices
Apple accused of snooping on workers’ iPhones in new lawsuit
Apple illegally spying on employees’ personal devices, silencing pay talk: lawsuit
Labor board accuses Apple of suppressing employee discussions
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