Apple is being sued by customers for allegedly selling iTunes data

Apple is being sued by a group of customers for allegedly selling their iTunes data to third-party companies.

The class-action federal lawsuit is seeking over $5 million in damages according to the suit filed on May 24 in California.

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According to Billboard, three iTunes users from Rhode Island are taking aim at the company. They’re claiming Apple collecting their data is a violation of their own individual states’ privacy laws.

“None of the information pertaining to the music you purchase on your iPhone stays on your iPhone,” according to the 51-page lawsuit.

The suit alleges Apple is supplementing their revenue by selling, renting and transmitting info on the music customers buy from their site.

“The data Apple discloses includes the full names and home addresses of its customers, together with the genres and, in some cases, the specific titles of digitally-recorded music that its customers have purchased via the iTunes Store and then stored in their devices,” according to the lawsuit.

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The complaint continues by saying Apple provides personal listening information which recipients match to other personal info. They are also allegedly handing this data over to app developers, data aggregators, list brokers and other third parties.

Apple’s Privacy Policy states that it only collects “non-personal information.” The policy further states Apple collects “data in a form that does not, on its own, permit direct association with any specific individual.”

While they say they aren’t collecting personal data, their policy is pretty shady. It also says Apple reserves the right to collect, use, transfer, and disclose that non-personal information for any purpose.

While the plaintiffs are arguing over iTunes data, that isn’t the only market Apple is mining from. They can collect data from the App Store, Mac App Store, App Store for Apple TV and iBooks Stores too.

The company says they’re collecting information “to help us provide more useful information to our customers.”

Although the lawsuit was filed today, Apple has not yet responded.

What do you think of the lawsuit against Apple? Let us know in the comments.

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