27 thousand South Koreans sue Apple over privacy concerns

About 27,000 South Koreans are suing Apple over privacy violations related to Locationgate, the location-tracking scandal that hit Apple earlier this year. Apple revealed that a software bug was collecting location information from cell phone towers and Wi-Fi hotspots and storing it on the phone without user authorization. This data was also transferred to the computer when a user synced their handset via iTunes. Acknowledged by Apple as glitch, this data collection was fixed in a subsequent update to iOS 4.

Unfortunately for Apple, this location-tracking violates South Korean law. Apple paid three million won to the Korea Communications Commission and was successfully sued by lawyer Kim Hyeong-seok. Kim was awarded one million won ($930) by the courts. Now that he has one victory under his belt, Kim is ready to try again. This time with 27,000 people. If successful, Kim could net his clients about 27.6 billion won (about US$25.7 million as of this writing) total.