LONDON, The United Kingdom — A Briton is suing Apple for £5 million, claiming that the tech giant’s failure to adequately inform users about the nature of deleted messages led to his wife discovering his infidelity and subsequently filing for divorce.
According to The Times, the middle-aged man from England, who has chosen to remain anonymous, believed that messages he had sent to sex workers via the iMessage app on his iPhone had been permanently deleted.
However, these messages remained accessible on the family’s iMac computer, leading to his wife’s discovery of his activities.
The plaintiff told The Times, “If you are told a message is deleted, you are entitled to believe it’s deleted. It’s all quite painful and quite raw still. It was a very brutal way of finding out [for my wife].”
In the final years of his marriage, the man had turned to prostitutes and communicated with them through iMessage, deleting the texts afterwards.
However, his wife eventually found the messages on the family computer, including those he believed he had erased.
“My thoughts are if I had been able to talk to her rationally and she had not had such a brutal realisation of it, I might still be married,” he added.
The man argues that Apple’s messaging system is misleading, as it suggests that deleted messages are permanently erased when, in fact, they can still be retrieved on other linked devices.
“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. If the message had said, ‘These messages are deleted on this device,’ that would have been a clue, or ‘These messages are deleted on this device only,’ that would have been even better,” the man lamented.
He is seeking over £5 million in damages for the financial losses incurred due to his divorce and legal costs, claiming that Apple did not adequately inform customers that deleted messages could still appear on other Apple devices.
Simon Walton, a lawyer from London-based law firm Rosenblatt representing the businessman, stated, “Apple had not been clear with users as to what happens to messages they send and receive and, importantly, delete. 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.”
Walton added, “I would be eager to hear from other Apple customers who have experienced similar issues.”
Apple has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
