A federal judge has narrowed a lawsuit accusing Apple of privacy violations involving the collection of user data through its proprietary apps like the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple TV. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, dismissed most of the claims related to the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” setting but allowed some claims regarding the “Share [Device] Analytics” setting to proceed.
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The plaintiffs allege that Apple violated their agreements and several privacy laws by collecting data even when certain settings were disabled. Judge Davila ruled that Apple had made it clear that the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” setting only applied to third-party apps, making it implausible for users to believe that turning it off would prevent Apple from collecting their data. However, he found that users may have reasonably believed disabling the “Share [Device] Analytics” setting would stop Apple from collecting data, as the company had disclosed users could “disable the sharing of Device Analytics altogether.”
Apple has defended the collection of data under this setting, stating that it is used to improve its products and services. The lawsuit is one of many aimed at tech giants like Apple, Google, and Meta, accusing them of unauthorized data collection. The case is titled In re Apple Data Privacy Litigation and is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
