Apple continues to face a class action lawsuit brought by stalking victims in the USA. The plaintiffs accuse the manufacturer of inadequately protecting AirTags from misuse in the Bluetooth trackers. Apple's request to dismiss the lawsuit has now failed, as the financial news agency Bloomberg reports. The responsible judge decided at the end of last week that the plaintiffs were able to adequately present their allegations with regard to negligence and product liability.
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AirTag security features reportedly inadequate
In the remaining charges, Apple is accused of the fact that in the stalking cases described by the plaintiffs, the “problems with the AirTag security functions were substantial and these security defects led to damage,” Bloomberg quotes from the reasoning of the responsible judge ( Hughes et al v. Apple, case number 3:22-CV-07668, United States District Court for the Northern District of California). Apple may be correct that the law in the US state of California does not require more comprehensive protection against stalking, but this cannot be conclusively answered at the current early stage of the class action lawsuit.
Apple had therefore argued that the AirTags were an “industry first” and had security functions and therefore the company could not be held responsible for misuse of the product.
In the class action lawsuit, which was significantly expanded in October 2023, victims report perfidious stalking via AirTag, which was then hidden in car seats, cuddly toys and shoe soles for tracking purposes. This deep insight into whereabouts ultimately led to murder, the lawsuit emphasizes.
Apple subsequently improved stalking protection
Apple only gradually expanded the anti-stalking functions after the AirTags went on sale, and Android users in particular remained practically unprotected for a long time. Apple and Google want to address stalking through Bluetooth trackers more broadly with an industry standard, but the standard appears to be significantly late. While Apple has long since set up its huge network for locating AirTags using iPhones in the area, Google has so far postponed the Android counterpart – until iOS integrates the corresponding extended tracking warning for products from other manufacturers. So far, the operating system only warns about unknown AirTags.
(lbe)