Eyebrows have been raised after Apple were forced to pay around $950 to an iPhone user in South Korea. Kim Hyung-Suk, a 36-year old lawyer from the city of Changwon had filed a suit against Apple on April 26^th. The case was based around the pre-installed software that utilised GPS to enable location recording. Kim argued it infringed his privacy rights as well as creating psychological stress. Apple were ordered to compensate Kim and declined the opportunity to appeal the case.

The repercussions of this could potentially be global. Apple must have consulted their lawyers and be satisfied that this individual case does not constitute a privacy precedent, because the concept of millions of iPhone users around the world all receiving a payout based on this software would likely bankrupt the company. There are 3 million iPhone owners in South Korea alone, some of whom launched a case action in April. If they all received the same compensation payout, Apple could face a bill of almost $3billion.

So far there is no explanation for why Apple chose to pay compensation to this individual, especially considering the potential repercussions. The results of the class action in South Korea may provide some answers. Big Brother Watch will watch how this story develops. After all, there may be $950 in it for every iPhone owner…