S. Koreans sue Apple over Privacy Violations

More than 20,000 South Korean iPhone users filed a class action lawsuit Wednesday against U.S. technology giant Apple for alleged privacy violations over the collection of location data, a law firm said.

The suit came after lawyer Kim Hyung-Suk was awarded one million won ($933) in compensation in June, the first such payout by Apple's Korean unit, following an interim order by a court in the southeastern city of Changwon.

Kim has since led online preparations for a class action suit against Apple and its South Korean unit.

The suit filed Wednesday involved 26,691 people demanding one million won each, a spokesman for Kim's firm Miraelaw said.

"We... electronically filed a suit seeking compensation from Apple and its South Korean unit for emotional damage caused by illegal location tracking by Apple's iPhone," the law firm said in a statement.

A separate suit involving another 921 people will be filed soon after they submit necessary paperwork, it said.

Apple Korea spokesman Steve Park declined to comment.

Apple in May released updated software for iPhones to fix "bugs" that resulted in location data being unencrypted and stored for up to a year. South Korea has about three million iPhone users.

South Korea's telecoms regulator said in early August it would fine Apple Korea up to three million won over the disputed feature.

The move followed a probe launched by the regulator in April to check if the collection of location data from iPhone users violated privacy rules.