Ex-employee Accuses Apple of Illegal Surveillance In a Lawsuit

Key Takeaways

• Amar Bhakta, who worked as a digital advertiser in Apple has filed a lawsuit against the company for illegally surveilling employees and suppressing free speech.
• In the lawsuit, he claimed that Apple monitors the personal devices of the employees, even when they are off-duty.
• Apple has denied these allegations. A spokesperson even said that the company actually encourages its employees to speak up about their wages, hours, and working conditions.

Apple has been sued by an ex-employee for allegedly spying on employee devices. The plaintiff is Amar Bhakta, who worked as a digital advertiser at Apple since 2020.

In the lawsuit filed in a California state court, Bhakta claims that Apple's work environment is a prison yard". Employees are constantly subjected to physical, video, and electronic surveillance.

He further explained that the company monitors everything an employee does on their personal devices. They are required to link their personal iCloud accounts to their work systems and allow the company to install monitoring software on their personal iPhones.

This way the company constantly checks the employee's emails, location, photos, and videos, even when the employee is off the clock. This surveillance also extends to the devices in the employees' home office.

In addition to that, Bhakta also accused the company of suppressing free speech. For example, he was barred from talking about his work on a podcast and was also asked to remove his job position at Apple from his LinkedIn profile which is now making it difficult for him to find another job.

These accusations, if true, violate the labor code in California. So Bhakta is seeking compensation for his own troubles as well as changes in the company so that no other employee has to go through the same ordeal.

In addition to paying the damages owed to Bhakta, Apple might also have to pay a separate penalty to the state.

What Does Apple Have to Say About This?

Apple has denied all these accusations. A spokesperson named Josh Rosenstock actually spoke out against the suppression of free speech" allegation and said that the company actually trains its employees on their rights to freely talk about their wages, hours, and working conditions.

However, this isn't the first time that the company has been accused of poorly treating its employees. Outten & Golden, the law firm that's representing Bhakta is also representing two other women who accused the company of discriminating against its female employees.

According to the lawsuit filed in June, the company paid lower wages to its female employees compared to their male counterparts. Approximately 12,000 female employees across various departments (in its California branch) such as engineering, marketing, and customer support are said to be affected by this discrimination.

Apple had denied these allegations as well.

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