Apple has paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to an unnamed Oregon college student after one of its outsourced repair facilities posted explicit pictures and videos of her to her Facebook page.
According to legal documents obtained by The Telegraph, the incident occurred in 2016 at a Pegatron-owned repair centre in Sacramento, California. The student had mailed in her device to have an unspecified fault fixed.
While it was at the facility, two technicians published a series of photographs showing the complainant unclothed to her Facebook account, as well as a “sex video.” The complaint said the post was made in a way that impersonated the victim, and was only removed after friends informed her of its existence.
The two men responsible were fired after an investigation. It is not known if the culprits faced criminal charges.
Much of the details of the case, as well as the exact size of the settlement, were sealed. Lawyers for the plaintiff sought a $5m payout. The settlement included non-disclosure provisions that prevented the student from revealing details about the case, or the exact size of the compensation.
Counsel for the victim threatened to sue for infliction of emotional distress, as well as invasion of privacy. The filings show they warned Apple that any lawsuit would result in inevitable negative publicity for the company.
Pegatron settled with the victim separately, per the filings.
In its fight against the right to repair, Apple has argued that allowing independent third-party businesses to service its computers and smartphones would present an unacceptable risk to user privacy and security.
This incident, which occurred at the facilities of an authorised contractor, has undercut that argument somewhat.
It follows a similar incident in November 2019, where a Genius Bar employee texted himself an explicit image taken from an iPhone he was repairing. After the victim complained, the employee was fired.
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Robin Edgar
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