A new lawsuit against Apple Inc. highlights tensions between workplace monitoring technologies and employee privacy rights. The case could set the stage for an influential ruling on the limits of employee surveillance in the digital age.
Filed under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), the lawsuit alleges Apple maintains overly restrictive workplace policies that violate employee privacy and labor rights through extensive digital monitoring and speech restrictions.
The surveillance scope
According to the complaint, Apple requires employees to either use company-issued devices or open up their personal devices to company management software. When employees link personal iCloud accounts to these managed devices, Apple claims broad access rights to search personal data, including emails, photos, and other private information.
“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,” the company’s policy states, according to court documents.
Apple’s policy further requires that the company know the location of every Apple-owned or Apple-managed device at all times, the complaint states. As Apple allegedly requires employees to be reachable for work with access to Apple’s network while off duty, and this requires an Apple device, this means Apple may always know where an employee is located.
Speech restrictions
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