Apple ‘pays out millions’ after woman dropped off iPhone and repair workers posted explicit photos to web

Apple will reportedly pay millions of dollars in compensation to a 21-year-old student, after iPhone repair technicians posted explicit photos from her phone on social media.

The settlement, which was first brought to light by The Telegraph, states that the student in Oregon took her iPhone to a repair store in California, which was operated by an Apple contractor called Pegatron.

Techs working on the student’s device posted “10 photos of her in various stages of undress and a sex video” to Facebook to make it appear as if she uploaded them herself.

The photos were then deleted when her friends noticed them.

Apple was referred to as a “customer” and not named within the lawsuit to keep the case private.

Only recently was Apple named the customer in an unrelated lawsuit against the iPhone manufacturer, which the company confirmed to The Telegraph.

The student, who isn’t named, sent her phone to the tech company because it wasn’t working.

As a result of the situation, the employees were subsequently fired.

It’s still uncertain as to how much money Apple gave the student, but legal fillings expressed her lawyers asking for US$5m for an “infliction of emotional distress.”

Apple swiftly took action when they heard about the incident.

“We take the privacy and security of our customers’ data extremely seriously and have a number of protocols in place to ensure data is protected throughout the repair process.  When we learned of this egregious violation of our policies at one of our vendors in 2016, we took immediate action and have since continued to strengthen our vendor protocols,” an Apple spokesperson told Indy100.

In 2019, Apple continued its efforts for privacy as it took steps to undercut unauthorized repairs to devices from third-party companies, citing that it would impact customer privacy.

Later that same year, the company revealed the Independent Repair Provider program.

Initially, the program was only accessible to iPhones that were out of warranty to be repaired by third-party companies.

In early 2021, Apple stated that the Independent Repair Provider program was growing worldwide to more than 200 countries to provide safe and “reliable repairs to Apple products.”

Apple reportedly has over 1,500 Independent Repair Provider locations that help customers in Canada, the US, and Europe.