Dallas Attorneys Take on Apple, App-Makers in California Federal Court Over Privacy Issues

By Robert Wilonsky Wed., Dec. 29 2010 at 10:08 AM

Categories: News

Flickr user: Sigalakos

Today's Washington Post offers this heads-up: Last week in U.S. District Court in California, Greenville Avenue-based personal-injury attorney Majed Nachawati and West End-dwelling personal-injury attorney Jeremy Wilson filed a class-action suit in which three locals, among others, claim that Apple and the makers of some iPhone apps are invading their privacy. You can read the entire complaint after the jump, but long story short: The suit was filed only a few days after The Wall Street Journal published the piece "Your Apps Are Watching You," in which it was revealed that ...

An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps" -- games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones -- showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders. The findings reveal the intrusive effort by online-tracking companies to gather personal data about people in order to flesh out detailed dossiers on them.

The suit makes mention of that story, as well as a study published this fall that reveals 68 percent of the apps looked at were sending iPhone users' Unique Device Identifier to outsiders without their knowledge, and it comes on the heels of the Obama Administration's calling for a "Privacy Bill of Rights." Among the app-makers sued: Pandora, Dictionary.com and The Weather Channel. Yeah, but, still, Pandora's totally worth it. Apple and Apps Invasion of Privacy Lawsuit

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