Apple lost its bid to dismiss a privacy lawsuit claiming that the company improperly collected and shared customers' personal information, after a judge ruled that the iPhone maker violated an order to turn over documents.
U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh said in a ruling that she was "disturbed" to learn that in its court filings seeking a dismissal, Apple relied on documents that it failed to disclose to lawyers for the customers.Calling its conduct "unacceptable," Koh said "the court cannot rely on Apple's representations about its compliance with its discovery obligations."Ashlie Beringer, a lawyer for Apple, said at a Feb. 28 hearing that it had produced all required documents, yet the company was still reviewing emails of Steve Jobs and other senior executives three days later, the judge said.Apple's claim that the executives weren't actively involved in the data collection issue is "surprising in light of the email showing that Steve Jobs, then Apple CEO, personally demanded that Apple software engineers immediately design and release a software update" to remedy the problem, Koh wrote in Friday's ruling.Customers alleged in their complaint that Apple collected information on their locations through iPhones and iPads, even after the device's geolocation feature was turned off. In the Jobs email that Koh referred to, the company's late co-founder directed engineers to fix a "bug" that overrode users' setting of the location services to "off," according to the ruling.Beringer said at a hearing Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal that it was a "mistake" for the company not to produce emails from Jobs, its marketing chief and the former head of mobile software, in violation of Grewal's November order. Grewal is helping Koh with the case.Grewal ruled that Apple must detail how it's complying with orders to turn over evidence because he can no longer rely on what it tells him on the subject.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
