Tech giant, Apple, has been sued for allegedly illegally monitoring its workers’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while also barring them from discussing their pay and working conditions.
This was disclosed in a complaint filed in California state court by a former employee of the company, Amar Bhakta.
Bhakta who works in digital advertising for Apple, in the lawsuit on Sunday claims the company requires employees to install software on personal devices that they use for work allowing Apple to access their email, photo libraries, health and “smart home” data and other personal information.
At the same time, the lawsuit alleges, Apple imposes confidentiality policies that prohibit employees from discussing working conditions, including with the media, and engaging in legally-protected whistleblowing.
Bhakta, who has worked for Apple since 2020, says he was barred from talking about his work on podcasts and 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 said.
Reacting, Apple in a statement provided by a spokesperson and quoted by Reuters said the claims in the lawsuit lack merit and that its workers are trained annually on their rights to discuss their working conditions.
“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,” the company said.
