An employee of Apple, Amar Bhakta has alleged that the tech major spies on its employees via their personal devices. He also accuses Apple of restricting employees’ speech and curtailing their freedom.
Bhakta, who has been working with the company for four years now, is a member of Apple’s digital advertising team. On 1 December, he filed a case under California laws, allowing employees to act on behalf of the state and retain 35 per cent of any recovered penalties.
According to Bhakta, Apple makes it mandatory for its employees to use Apple products for official work. However, it also imposes considerable restrictions on work devices. As a result, the personal devices of many employees, who perform official work on their iPhones and iPads, are covered under company policies. This allows Apple access to the personal data of the employees, which Apple can sift through, including photographs, e-mails and notes.
Bhakta alleges that Apple has been monitoring employees’ personal lives while they work at home. According to the lawsuit, Apple employees have no freedom of speech and are restricted from discussing their compensations, work conditions and political activities. Bhakta himself was now allowed to be part of podcasts pertaining to digital advertising, which is his forte. He was ordered to delete all professional information from his social media profile too.
Apple of course maintains that Amar Bhakta’s allegations are baseless and that Apple employees are given training every year on their rights to discuss working conditions.
This is not the first time that Apple has been dragged to court for its workplace practices. Earlier, it has been accused of discriminating against women and not paying the women in its workforce as much as they deserve. It was accused of trying to curtail discussions around such discrimination too.