While the settlement appears to be a victory for Apple users after months of mediation, it potentially lets Apple off the hook pretty cheaply. If the court had certified the class action and Apple users had won, Apple could've been fined more than $1.5 billion under the Wiretap Act alone, court filings showed.
Seems like a great chance to challenge the whole "eula can be used to force meditation instead of court". Was this a class action meditation? How does it claim valid representation for people who were affected but weren't a part of the meditation?
Should also challenge the whole corporate veil because there would be criminal charges if any individual did this and even though they were surrounded by a corporate structure, this was also done by individuals.
Given Apple made $93.74 billion in just 2024 alone, this fine is equivalent to fining the average person just 1/3 of a day's wages for over a decade of illegal privacy invasion.
That fine is laughably insignificant in the face of the crime committed against the people involved.
The average person pays proportionally far more than that for much less significant crimes!
Penalties need to take into account profit, ALL profit is the base of the fine, then add penalties on top. Until this happens... who am I kidding it'll never happen
I noticed the lack of mention of iMac or people who don't live in the USA, but I'm guessing that we're not considered a user, just a source of income..
Also, September 17, 2014, and December 31, 2024 covers almost a decade of recordings, $20 seems inconceivably low return of investment and I doubt it represents how much actual money was made in advertising revenue, AI training and whatever else it was used for.
Finally, what about devices owned by an employer but exclusively used by one individual?
Imagine if they make a big revenue but still operated in the negative does that mean they are immune from any repercussions because they made no profit? That is delusional. You always calculate fines against revenue.
"Oopsie poopsie, I sent that rash you sent to your doctor to our CEO, soooooory. Here's a 20 as an apology, again, so sorry for doing that, won't happen again, pinky promise!"