If you want to sue Apple over FaceTime eavesdropping and live in Canada, now's your chance...

AppleInsider · January 31, 2019 6:06PM

A Montreal lawfirm is pursuing a class action lawsuit against Apple over its recently-disclosed Group FaceTime bug, which let people spy on others who hadn't actually accepted a call.

The suit is waiting for authorization from a Superior court judge, said the firm, Lambert Avocat. Efforts began on Jan. 29, just one day after the bug became public knowledge.

Lambert is seeking compensation for "for all [Canadian] persons who own an Apple product, including an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, iPod and/or Macbook operating on an iOS system of 12.1 or more recent, and who used the Facetime application." The language suggests that the firm isn't strictly familiar with Apple products, since the Apple Watch runs on watchOS and MacBooks employ macOS, though both can participate in FaceTime calls.

Canadians can sign up for news on the action's status by submitting their name, address, and contact information, as well as info on whether they have an affected product.

Apple now faces at least three legal actions over the FaceTime exploit. One is a private suit launched in Houston, Tex., while another is an investigation by New York state that may or may not result in anything further.

Though Apple has temporarily disabled Group FaceTime and promised a fix, the company is under fire having been warned about the problem over a week before responding.

VicW · January 31, 2019 6:08PM

Another scheme for free money. Disgusting.

techno · January 31, 2019 6:09PM

May all of these scum sucking leeches fail. Nobody deserves money for this, especially opportunistic lawyers. Being Canadian, I am disappointed.

magman1979 · January 31, 2019 6:10PM

The ambulance chasers are out in full force, disgraceful waste of human skin!

jungmark · January 31, 2019 6:18PM

Make these lawyers pay Apple’s legal fees when they lose.

DAalseth · January 31, 2019 6:20PM

I am not a sewer nor do I associate with sewers.

fallenjt · January 31, 2019 6:37PM

I wish Apple will do this:
“And to remedy this risk, Apple just killed the Group FaceTime feature completely”...suck it up, fuckers...

smiffy31 · January 31, 2019 6:39PM

If companies face a process for every bug in their software, some are going to have a very hard time.

metrix · January 31, 2019 6:59PM

Wait GM had faulty ignitions that caused at least 124 deaths over several years and people want to sue Apple for this?

DAalseth · January 31, 2019 7:05PM

metrix said:

Wait GM had faulty ignitions that caused at least 124 deaths over several years and people want to sue Apple for this?

I wouldn't be surprised. For some of these leaches firms I suspect Apple is the default defendant.

22july2013 · January 31, 2019 7:20PM

Since everyone commenting here today is on Apple's side, I'm going to try to take the other side to keep some balance here. Canada is a free democracy where an independent judicial system means anyone can file a lawsuit, not unlike America. Are people on this forum objecting to lawsuits or freedom or an independent judiciary? I'm not going to shut down Canadians' freedom; I celebrate it. Indeed, I would defend it both in words and, if necessary, in arms.

In America the loser rarely has to pay the winner's court case's cost (some US states have laws defining when this may happen.) In Canada it's occasionally (and only partial costs). In Britain it's often. [Bizarrely, in Canada sometimes even before the court case is resolved the plaintiff may get legal fees from the company they are suing.] The idea of the loser paying the winner's legal fees is intended to precent frivolous lawsuits. The downside is that the poor don't get as much justice when they have to pay the winner's legal fees. I think you Americans should be grateful that your system defends the poor. "Equal justice for all." Indeed Americans' taxes even pay the poor's legal fees with state-appointed lawyers (who tend to have less experience because the pay is low.) It sounds like some of you here want a legal system more like Britain, or worse Japan (where the poor don't get a lawyer unless the charge carries a penalty of over 3 years), or worse, Russia (where the poor don't get a lawyer if they are shown to be competent to defend themselves.) As such, the state paying for the poor's lawsuit against Apple is actually a good, just and fair thing.

Did I make a good case?

80s_Apple_Guy · January 31, 2019 7:35PM

While Apple is certainly the target of frivolous and ambulance chaser lawsuits, here the one issue I have is them waiting a week after they knew about the issue to shut it down and/or even notify people. Confidential information is discussed on FaceTime and not immediately taking action is not acceptable. Similar to the whole Facebook thing and how long it took them to revoke the Enterprise certification. Apple needs to react to these things in a timely fast manner if they want the trust of the customers.

That said unless people can prove they were harmed the lawsuit is a money grab for the lawyers as I'd guess 99% of the class.

80s_Apple_Guy · January 31, 2019 7:36PM

metrix said:

Wait GM had faulty ignitions that caused at least 124 deaths over several years and people want to sue Apple for this?

They were sued too. Not saying this is comparable on any way.

smiffy31 · January 31, 2019 7:58PM

80s_Apple_Guy said:

While Apple is certainly the target of frivolous and ambulance chaser lawsuits, here the one issue I have is them waiting a week after they knew about the issue to shut it down and/or even notify people. Confidential information is discussed on FaceTime and not immediately taking action is not acceptable. Similar to the whole Facebook thing and how long it took them to revoke the Enterprise certification. Apple needs to react to these things in a timely fast manner if they want the trust of the customers.

That said unless people can prove they were harmed the lawsuit is a money grab for the lawyers as I'd guess 99% of the class.

Can you begin to imagine the nimber of bug reports that apple gets in a week that nee to be sorted through, the may be large but that does not mean unlimited resources, all bug reports take time to check, I think that a week is incredibly short, most companies take a lot longer than this to acknowledge a bug let alone try and fix it. I think most people think that a few minutes with an editor and bugs simply fall away. When people have never developed code, they should refrain from commenting on reactions. The same can be said for most jobs where people comment without having any idea of the complexity.

Scot1 · January 31, 2019 8:05PM

I’m a Canadian and have many apple products in our home.

I would never consider joining a lawsuit of this nature.

slurpy · January 31, 2019 8:19PM

I live in Montreal. Fuck these people, and anyone who joins the lawsuit.

lkrupp · January 31, 2019 8:31PM

80s_Apple_Guy said:

While Apple is certainly the target of frivolous and ambulance chaser lawsuits, here the one issue I have is them waiting a week after they knew about the issue to shut it down and/or even notify people. Confidential information is discussed on FaceTime and not immediately taking action is not acceptable. Similar to the whole Facebook thing and how long it took them to revoke the Enterprise certification. Apple needs to react to these things in a timely fast manner if they want the trust of the customers.

That said unless people can prove they were harmed the lawsuit is a money grab for the lawyers as I'd guess 99% of the class.

There you go making assumptions you can’t produce any evidence for. You claim as fact that Apple knew about this for a week and intentionally decided not to act. Not everything you read on the Internet is true but you have accepted what you read here and elsewhere as the gospel truth. The rest of your manifesto about “timely fast manner” is gobbledygook nonsense. Again you assume things can happen quickly at a giant corporation by just wishing it were true.

larryjw · January 31, 2019 8:58PM

80s_Apple_Guy said:

While Apple is certainly the target of frivolous and ambulance chaser lawsuits, here the one issue I have is them waiting a week after they knew about the issue to shut it down and/or even notify people. Confidential information is discussed on FaceTime and not immediately taking action is not acceptable. Similar to the whole Facebook thing and how long it took them to revoke the Enterprise certification. Apple needs to react to these things in a timely fast manner if they want the trust of the customers.

That said unless people can prove they were harmed the lawsuit is a money grab for the lawyers as I'd guess 99% of the class.

That's not what happened. Nobody waited a week. Apple probably gets hundreds of bug notifications a week, most of them imaginary. Secondly, bug identification and evaluation is a complex process, once something is even determined to be a bug, which itself is non-trivial.

And, you're actually believing the line that a teenager found the bug and notified Apple? Do you have a clue what is means to notify Apple? Just because I email some Apple support person that I found a "bug" doesn't mean I've notified Apple -- in fact, I have no idea what constitutes notifying Apple. And neither do any of the lawyers bringing suit.

evn616 · January 31, 2019 9:00PM

The sickening things people will do for money.

randominternetperson · January 31, 2019 10:19PM

Where can I sign up for this, so I can get a check for $0.03 5 years from now? Good luck to anyone proving any real damage. First, how many people actually had this done to them during the brief time it was out there? Second, how many important secrets were leaked/stolen this way? I expect that if someone had a comprehensive database of every single snippet of audio collected during those seconds when Facetime was "ringing" they (after months of analysis) would find about 5 interesting things (across tens of millions of people). This whole brouhaha is ridiculous. Yeah, it was a bad bug, but no one was really impacted, and now it's shut down.

krawall · January 31, 2019 10:36PM

Can Appleinsider stop reporting this? Why report it? Especially with such an offensive title.

If you want to sue Apple over FaceTime eavesdropping and live in Canada, now's your chance...

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