An employee from Apple’s ad tech division accused the company of spying on their employees’ devices using proprietary software and silencing discussions on pay and working conditions.
Amar Bhakta, a current employee at Apple, filed a complaint against Apple in the California state court. First reported by Semafor, Apple has been accused of illegally monitoring employees’ personal devices and iCloud accounts.
Bhakta, who started working for Apple in 2020, also claimed that Apple’s confidentiality policies are strict and discourage employee discussion about pay, working conditions, and whistleblowing. Apple allegedly requires the staff to install software on their work devices and any other personal devices used for work that collect private photos and emails, among other things.
According to a Reuters report, Bhakta was told specifically not to talk about his workplace conditions in podcasts. He was also supposedly forced to remove such information about his work from his LinkedIn profile.
The lawsuit argues that Apple’s practices violate employee rights and free speech and limit employees’ ability to raise concerns about the workplace or seek new opportunities.
Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock has dismissed these allegations and highlighted that Apple employees receive training on their workplace rights annually. “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,” Rosenstock added in an email to The Verge.
This is not the only lawsuit Apple has faced regarding working conditions this year. As reported in a Forbes article, Apple was also accused of underpaying female employees in some divisions. Apple denied the allegations. Moreover, the US National Relations Board is investigating many more complaints about Apple discouraging employees from discussing pay discrimination and workplace bias.
Earlier this year, Amazon was fined 35 million dollars in France for using “excessive surveilance,” as mentioned in a BBC article. This shows that precedents have already been established in other countries, setting the stage for potential scrutiny of similar practices by major tech companies like Apple in the US.