Have you ever been scrolling through your iPad and come across a familiar text message, one you definitely remember sending from your phone? Well one man is now suing Apple over that feature.
The reason? Well, the U.K. husband used iMessage to communicate with escorts, according to The Times. Although he deleted the messages from his iPhone, his wife later discovered them on the family’s iMac.
At first, this might seem like a feature of Apple’s iCloud, which allows users to sync things like photos and messages on different Apple devices. However, a breakdown from iMore indicates that not enabling iCloud was the issue.
Here’s how it works in a nutshell. If an Apple user signs in to any device with their Apple ID, their iMessages will be accessible on it. If they enable iCloud sharing and delete messages, those messages will be deleted on any device they use. If they don’t enable it, the messages will only be deleted on the specific device the user deleted them on.
According to iMore, Apple’s support document for deleting messages explains that: “If you use Messages in iCloud, deleting a message or conversation on your Mac deletes it from all your devices where Messages in iCloud is on.”
“As reported by The Times, the husband in question had arranged to meet prostitutes via iMessage on his iPhone, and had deleted the incriminating texts from his device, believing this would cover up his infidelity,” said iMore. “However, his wife opened up iMessage on the iMac the family shared and found all the texts – revealing years' worth of messages to prostitutes. She filed for divorce shortly after this realization.”
He’s now seeking the equivalent of more than $6 million in damages from Apple. That’s for the cost of legal fees, money lost in the divorce, and emotional harm he says he has experienced.
“I genuinely thought I was going to have a heart attack. Divorce is an extraordinarily stressful process and you have children and family dynamics. In my opinion, it’s all because Apple told me my messages were deleted when they weren’t,” he reportedly said.
Rosenblatt, a law firm based in London, is considering making a class action lawsuit for other users who have gone through similar things with Apple devices. Simon Walton of Rosenbaltt said: “In many cases, the iPhone informs the user that messages have been deleted but, as we have seen, that isn’t true and is misleading because they are still found on other linked devices – something Apple doesn’t tell its users.”
However, iMore said Apple does technically inform users that this might happen. Apple has not yet responded publicly to this case, said the outlet.
This isn’t the only story that recently may have sent Apple customers to their messages or old photo albums. Audacy reported last month that Apple has released an update for a “rare bug” that could cause deleted photos to pop back up on some iPhones.