New iPad Class Action

Those of you who got an iPad or an iPhone for Christmas may soon be getting an added bonus – a class action notice (I suppose only a lawyer would call that a “bonus”). Bloomberg Business week reports that a class action was filed last week against Apple. The complaint contends that the devices are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they’re used and for how long. The complaint states that certain apps then sell that information to third parties. And that, apparently conflicts with Apple’s representations about how it prevents app from doing precisely that. The complaint also names Backflip.com, Dictionary.com, Pandora and the Weather Channel. These additional defendants are the apps that, according to the complaint misappropriate the information. The complaint contends that the defendants violated federal law – the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the electronic Communications Privacy Act – along with California law. It’s very early in the proceedings, and there is no guarantee that the court will certify a class. But given the popularity of the iPad and iPhone, it could be a big class. We’ll see.