If your wife catches you cheating with prostitutes, a typical response would be to apologize and attempt to salvage your marriage. Or you could take a less conventional route and sue Apple.
A man in England has chosen the latter option. As reported by The Times, he is suing Apple for £5 million after his wife discovered his infidelity through the family iMac. Due to privacy concerns, the man has not disclosed his name or location.
Here’s what happened: The man was arranging meetings with sex workers using iMessage. Although he deleted the incriminating texts from his iPhone, they remained visible on the family iMac, which was synced via the same Apple ID. His wife discovered the messages and promptly filed for divorce, leading to significant financial loss for the man, which he estimates at over £5 million. Now, he wants Apple to compensate him for his losses.
In his lawsuit, the man argues that iMessage did not adequately inform him that deleting messages on his iPhone would not remove them from other devices. He believes that had his wife not learned of his actions in such a harsh manner, he could have had a rational conversation with her and potentially saved his marriage.
The man seeks to establish a class-action lawsuit on behalf of others who might not be aware of how their devices handle messages and who, like him, might not fully understand their actions. Apple has yet to comment on the situation.
In the meantime, anyone looking to keep their messages private should avoid syncing texts across multiple devices or ensure that iCloud for Messages is enabled. To activate it, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Show All > Messages in iCloud > Use on This iPhone.