California Apple employee Amar Bhakta has filed a lawsuit against Apple for alleged labor violations. Bhakta claims that Apple surveils employees and inspects their personal data via their personal iCloud accounts and personal devices (reported by Semafor).
The suit, filed Sunday evening in California state court, alleges Apple employees are required to give up the right to personal privacy, and that the company says it can “engage in physical, video and electronic surveillance of them” even when they are at home and after they stop working for Apple.
Those requirements are part of a long list of Apple employment policies that the suit contends violate California law.
Bhakta has been working at Apple since July 2020 as a Digital Ad Tech/Operations Manager. His lawsuit claims that Apple’s privacy policies harm their employees’ employment prospects, as the firm forbade him from publicly speaking about digital advertising, even ordering him to remove information from his LinkedIn page about his Apple job responsibilities.
“For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims that Apple forbids its employees from telling anyone about the skills and knowledge they gained at Apple even after they have left the company for another employer. It claims that employees are not allowed to speak with fellow workers or anyone outside the company about any issues they had at Apple.
Apple requires employees to use Apple devices, software, and services, many times using their own personal devices. Apple often installs corporate software on employees’ devices, allowing the company to “collect and use the valuable personal data” of employees, both at work and at home.
The lawsuit claims that employees are forced to agree to physical, video, and electronic surveillance by Apple. Apple is allowed to search Apple and non-Apple devices and other property whenever an employee is on “company premises.”
The lawsuit also says Apple employees must sign in to Apple collaboration tools with an iCloud account, often using their personal iCloud account. Employees are given the choice of using his own iPhone or a company-owned iPhone for his job. When he chose to use his personal device, Apple installed an eSIM and a VPN on the device, and required him to use his personal iCloud account to collaborate with fellow employees.
While employees are technically allowed to use a work-owned device and work iCloud account at work, the suit claims Apple “actively discourages” doing this.
In a statement, Apple said it strongly disagrees with the claims in the lawsuit. “Every employee has the right to discuss their wages, hours and working conditions and this is part of our business conduct policy, which all employees are trained on annually,” it said.