Apple makes first 'locationgate' legal payout, less than $1,000

Apple has made its first legal payout to an iPhone user after being accused of collecting and storing location data last year. A South Korean man is the recipient, apparently, of a settlement consisting of a whopping 1 million won, which only turns out to be about US$946 (as of this writing). Still, this is the first legally required payout on Apple's part -- the check was signed last month by Apple Korea, apparently.

There is also a class action lawsuit in Korea that's attempting to get off the ground (though was stymied, apparently, by a site that went down under the traffic), and, especially with the news of this payout, there's probably other legal action going on around the rest of the world as well.

Don't be too quick to dial up that lawyer, though -- Korea has some pretty strict data sharing laws, and collecting location information like this from users is clearly illegal there, whereas in the U.S. or other countries, the law might not be so clear on what companies can and can't do with user data. It's unlikely that this is the last payout Apple will make, but just because they paid here doesn't mean they'll be losing every judgement on this one.