Apple hit with employee lawsuit alleging privacy and speech violations

An Apple employee has sued the company, alleging it improperly requires access to personal data that employees store on the tech behemoth’s iCloud.

The lawsuit, filed by Amar Bhakta, who has worked in advertising technology for Apple since 2020, also alleges the company’s policies illegally restrict discussions about wages and working conditions among workers.

Apple provides employees with iPhones and other equipment, but it is common for employees to use their own devices or to link company-issued products to their personal iCloud accounts, according to the lawsuit. When they do so, the lawsuit alleges, Apple demands as part of its terms of employment that employees allow the company to install software that makes it possible to search a device or iCloud account. In addition, the company “actively discourages” the use of work-only iCloud accounts, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, Apple forbade Bhakta from speaking publicly about his work in digital advertising and required him to remove information about his work from his LinkedIn profile.

These moves “limited his visibility and attractiveness in the job market,” the lawsuit said.

“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,” company policy states, according to the lawsuit.

Taken together, Apple’s policies have a chilling effect on employees’ willingness to be whistleblowers on internal issues and on their freedom of movement in the job market, the lawsuit said.

Bhakta filed the suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court this week under the Private Attorneys General Act, a unique California law that allows employees to sue on behalf of the state for labor violations.

“All California employees have the right to speak about their wages and working conditions,” said Jahan Sagafi, an attorney at Outten & Golden, the firm that represents Bhakta, in a Monday news release. “Apple’s broad speech suppression policies create a danger of discrimination going unchallenged.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times. In a statement to the Verge, Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock disputed the claims in the lawsuit.

“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,” Rosenstock said.

Bhakta said he hopes Apple will change its approach.

“Being able to speak openly about my work is so important to me,” Bhakta said in the release. “It’s disappointing that Apple, whose ethos is privacy and confidentiality, would try to monitor and censor me.”

Other Apple employees have raised similar concerns of privacy violations and overly broad policies restricting discussion of pay.

A 2021 report by the Verge revealed concerns about data privacy among Apple workers required to link their personal accounts and devices to their jobs.

And last month Apple was accused by the National Labor Relations Board of trying to prevent employees from discussing pay equity by enforcing broad rules that prohibited workers from discussing financial incentives the company uses to reach sales goals by asserting that the topic included “confidential and proprietary information.”