Apple is facing a new lawsuit that accuses the company of illegally monitoring its employees’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while restricting them from discussing their pay and working conditions.
The complaint, filed in California state court on Sunday by Amar Bhakta, a digital advertising employee at Apple, alleges that the company mandates workers to install software on their personal devices for work, which enables Apple to access their emails, photo libraries, health data, smart home information, and other personal details.
The lawsuit further claims that Apple enforces confidentiality policies that prevent employees from discussing working conditions, including with the media, and from engaging in legally protected whistleblowing activities. Bhakta, who has worked at Apple since 2020, says he was forbidden from discussing his work on podcasts and was instructed to remove details about his work 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 states.
Apple responded in a statement, saying that the claims in the lawsuit were unfounded, adding that its workers are annually trained on their rights to discuss 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.
Bhakta’s legal team also represents two women who filed a lawsuit in June, accusing Apple of systematically underpaying female employees in its engineering, marketing, and AppleCare departments. Apple has pledged to promote inclusion and pay equity.
Additionally, Apple is currently dealing with at least three complaints from a U.S. labor board, alleging that the company has unlawfully deterred employees from discussing issues like sex bias and pay discrimination, including by restricting their use of social media and workplace messaging app Slack. The company has denied the accusations.
The lawsuit was filed under a California law that allows employees to sue their employers on behalf of the state and retain 35% of any penalties recovered.
