Apple faces wrath of 27,000 South Koreans

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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.

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.

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