Apple faces wrath of 27,000 South Koreans
Steve Jobs and Co may have to pay out over £15 million if 27,000 upset South Koreans get their way.
Apple could be forced to pay out over 15 million to South Koreans unhappy about the company's tracking function in iPhone devices.
Earlier this year, Apple was told to pay out one million won (565) in compensation to lawyer Kim Hyung-souk. Now another 27,000, all being represented by Hyung-souk's law firm Mirae Law, want that same sum.
"I'm an iPhone user myself, so when I first heard about this in the media, I reviewed the legality of the matter based on Korean law," Hyung-souk said, according to the Daily Telegraph.
"I concluded it was clearly illegal."
In April, two researchers discovered a file in iOS 4 which allowed devices to store location data.
It was suggested the latitude and longitude of phone coordinates were being recorded along with a timestamp, which could have allowed a user's movement patterns to be recognised.
Apple subsequently announced it had fixed a problem within iOS that made it difficult to turn off the tracking function.
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Apple is currently embroiled in a wide range of court cases, including a number of patent disputes.
Earlier this week, it emerged HTC had filed a suit against Apple over three patents, as the Taiwanese firm hopes to stop sales of iPhones, iPads, iPods and Mac computers in the US.
Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.
He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.
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