Apple: iPhone tracking lawsuit doesn't demonstrate harm

Remember when a group of plaintiffs decided to sue Apple, alleging that the company was allowing free apps from the App Store to gather geographical location information without their consent? Well, Bloomberg reports that Apple was in US District Court in California on Wednesday, asking Judge Lucy Koh to deny a request from plaintiffs' counsel to have the case turned into a class-action suit.

Apple says that the plaintiffs haven't proven that any tracking that did take place actually resulted in harm to them. The lawyers for the plaintiffs have also dropped their claims to damages, which Apple views as proof that they're only trying for class-action status in order to recover legal fees.

The lawsuit revolved around the ability of apps to have access to an iOS device's unique device identifier (UDID), allowing ad agencies to capture usage data across apps. Apple now restricts UDID access by app and is actually rejecting some apps that still use the code.

[via Apple Insider]