"Apple’s assurances and promises regarding privacy are utterly false," alleges a new class action suit filed against the tech giant at the Northern California District Court on November 10th. "Apple records, tracks, collects and monetizes analytics data [of consumers using iPhones and iPads]—including browsing history and activity information—regardless of what safeguards or “privacy settings” consumers undertake to protect their privacy. Even when consumers follow Apple’s own instructions and turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track” and/or “Share [Device] Analytics” on their privacy controls, it still continues to record consumers’ app usage, app browsing communications, and personal information in its proprietary Apple apps, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, and Stocks." Who discovered this issue? The lawsuit comes off the back of a fresh Gizmodo report on how two researchers at software company Mysk discovered that multiple iPhone apps continue to send Apple analytics data despite privacy-enhancing settings being switched on. "The researchers found that the problem persists across most of Apple’s suite of built-in iPhone apps," adds Gizmodo. Information collected includes ads searched for, ads viewed, how an app was discovered, how long a user looked at an app's page, the kind of phone being used, screen resolution, keyboard languages, and how the user is connected to the Internet. Apple did not respond to Gizmodo's requests for comments on the matter. Why it matters? Apple has made a name for itself by claiming to protect the data privacy of its consumers—introducing a slew of "privacy-protecting" features sometimes accused of self-preferentially attacking the data-driven foundations of…
