Apple Accused in Suit of Tracking IPad, IPhone User Location

Apple was accused of invasion of privacy and computer fraud by two customers who claim in a lawsuit that the company is secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users.

Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, sued April 22 in federal court in Tampa (FL) seeking a judge’s order barring the alleged data collection. The complaint cited a report last week by two computer programmers claiming that Apple’s iOS4 operating system is logging latitude-longitude coordinates along with the time a spot is visited. The programmers said Apple devices are collecting about a year’s worth of location data. Apple hasn't commented on the matter since the April 20 report was released. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) asked to meet with Apple and Google Inc. executives to discuss reports that their products collect information about users’ locations. AG Madigan wrote to both companies asking what information they store, its purposes and for how long. French, German, Italian and South Korean regulators are investigating the alleged location collection feature on Apple devices.

[The case is Ajjampur v. Apple Inc., 11-cv-00895, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa)]