Guess How Much ‘Locationgate’ Has Cost Apple (So Far)

  • Share
  • Read Later

Remember “Locationgate”? That one time everyone was up in arms about a hidden file in iPhones that fed location data back to Apple? If you don’t, that’s okay (in internet years that’s like trying to remember the ’60s). Here’s a kind refresher.

And although Apple’s privacy policy for iOS devices (which includes iPads equipped with 3G connections as well as iPhones) states that the company would be collecting “diagnostic and usage information,” the public outcry when the hidden tracking file was discovered was almost deafening.

(MORE: Hidden iPhone File Records Your Location Coordinates)

Which is why this bit of news parsed out by Boy Genius Report is so, well, strange. So far, as the result of a complaint filed in South Korea, Apple’s total payout in damages was 1 million won, or $945 in American dollars—pennies of pennies for Apple, which has been valued at up to $300 billion.

Reuters reports that Kim Hyung-suk, himself a lawyer, received the money in May when the courts ordered Apple to pony up after a complaint. Kim’s law firm, Mirae Law, has also stated that a new class action suit is in the works for the similarly aggrieved. South Korea residents can sign up for here (though the website is bogged down due to traffic).

(MORE: Man Hacks Neighbors’ Wi-Fi to Frame Them for Child Porn (and More))

Apple provided a software update in May that has since rectified the tracking issue, and things have largely quieted down. Still, more payouts are likely on the horizon, and lawmakers here in the U.S. have already proposed legislation to tighten up existing mobile privacy laws.

[via BGR]

Chris Gayomali is a writer-reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @chrigz, on Facebook, or on Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.