Apple notches win with dismissal of data privacy class action

SAN JOSE, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge dropped a class action against Apple on Tuesday, saying the tech giant’s analytics sharing settings on their phones did not violate privacy laws

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila added that the plaintiff Apple users’ claim on the use of a “pen register” was not accurately included in their lawsuit and did not hold up under consideration.

The plaintiffs originally filed suit in November 2022, contending Apple collected private data when users interact with Apple’s proprietary apps, including the App store, Apple Music, and Apple TV and the company misled users into believing certain settings “would restrict Apple’s collection, storage and use of private data.”

But Davila, a Barack Obama appointee, said in his 21-page order granting Apple’s motion to dismiss, that “the data collection plaintiffs complain of here is different in kind and degree to the data collection courts have found to support a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

In September 2024 Davila dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims from their October 2023 amended complaint about Apple’s “Allow Apps to Request to Track” setting, moving forward only with the claims based on the “Share Device Analytics” setting.

The plaintiffs also introduced Apple’s use of a “pen register" — a “trap and trace device or process that records or decodes dialing, routing, addressing or signaling information transmitted by an instrument, but not the contents of a communication,” according to Davila — as a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

Apple argued the plaintiffs could not use the pen register claim because it is typically used by law enforcement with a court order, and the plaintiffs did not clearly define what a “pen register” was in the context of Apple’s apps, nor include the argument in its amended complaint.

“The court agrees with Apple that the statute’s definition of ‘pen register’ necessarily applies only to a device or process separate from the source of the transmitted communications,” Davila said. “To interpret the statute otherwise would lead to absurd results. For example, if read the other way, the pen register statute would create criminal liability for call logs on cell phones because the logs list routing information like the phone numbers called from a particular phone.”

Additionally, Davila said the Apple users’ assumption toggling off “Share [Device] Analytics” on their devices meant none of their usage data would be sent to Apple was “objectively unreasonable.”

Davila noted that it was unlikely that the plaintiffs could win on the “pen register” claims but granted a leave to amend for that claim, and the others he dismissed “out of an abundance of caution.”

After the court dismissed several claims in September 2024, including invasion of privacy and fraud claims based on consumer protection laws in New York, New Jersey and Illinois, the plaintiffs filed an amended consolidated complaint in April 2025.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.