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FUTIAN District People’s Court dismissed a lawsuit in which a local woman sued Apple Inc., claiming that the preloaded apps on the company’s iPhone may have invaded her privacy, the Daily Sunshine reported.
The woman, surnamed Yao, said she spent 4,600 yuan (US$748) to buy an iPhone 5 in January last year, but she found the smartphone had many preloaded apps that could not be uninstalled, such as Compass, Game Center, Safari and Voice Memos.
Yao worried that these apps may have monitored her phone data, stolen her personal information and generated extra fees.
She also complained of having trouble using her iPhone. For example, Chinese users must have their SIM cards tailored for iPhones and can only download apps from the Apple Store, she said.
Yao sued Apple’s sole distributor on the Chinese mainland and two of its retailers in Shenzhen. She requested them to inform the public about whether the phone’s preloaded apps and the Apple Store could monitor and steal users’ personal information, why these apps cannot be uninstalled and whether they could generate additional fees on phone bills.
She urged Apple to redesign its phone so that the preloaded apps can be uninstalled and requested the company to apologize publicly through national media outlets.
The Futian court said Yao had been aware of these issues before she bought the phone.
These problems don’t affect normal use of the phone and the request Yao made for the company to redesign the iPhone system and apologize are groundless, the court said.
Regarding the issue of privacy invasion, the court said if Yao is certain that Apple Inc. invaded her privacy, her requests, such as asking the company to tell her whether iPhone’s preloaded apps could monitor and steal users’ personal information and why these apps cannot be uninstalled, are meaningless.
Apple Inc. has actually responded to these requests, saying iPhones don’t invade users’ privacy, so there is no need for the court to make a ruling, the court said.(Zhang Yang)
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