The lawsuit that benefited Apple

In 2016, a woman took her iPhone to an Apple Authorized Service Centre for repair. What happened next was a shocking violation of privacy: two employees allegedly accessed images and videos stored on her device and posted them on her Facebook account, making it seem like she had shared them herself.

She only discovered this when a friend alerted her to the leak. Although she quickly removed the content, the damage was done. She sued Apple for privacy violations and the emotional distress caused, leading to a reported multi-million dollar settlement. Speculation suggests she received nearly $5 million, with a confidentiality clause preventing disclosure of the exact amount.

This scandal seemed like a major financial loss for Apple due to the negligence of its technicians. However, it also uncovered a new revenue stream.

To prevent such breaches, Apple tightened its controls by introducing the subject “Customer’s Responsibility,” in its Apple’s Repair Terms and Conditions. According to this, customers must back up and erase all data before handing over their devices for repair. While this seems like Apple is safeguarding its customers, it places the onus on the customers to back up their data.

For Android users, this is a simple task: connect the phone to a PC via USB, back up the data to the hard drive, erase the phone’s data, and head to the service center. But for iPhone users, backing up data without a MacBook is almost impossible.

So, what can iPhone users do to back up their data? The answer: Pay for iCloud.

Ironically, the privacy breach incident led to a surge in iCloud subscriptions. In India, iPhone users now pay INR 900 annually for 50GB of iCloud storage to back up their data. Regardless of whether your iPhone has 512GB or 1TB of internal storage, if it needs a repair and you haven’t backed up your data, you risk losing everything due to Apple’s Repair Policy.

Even with today’s exchange rate of $1 = INR 80, $5 million amounts to a staggering INR 40 crore. To recover the INR 40 crore paid in settlement money within a single year, 444,444 users would need to subscribe to iCloud, each paying INR 900 annually. [ 40,00,000 / 900 = 4,44,444 ]

Considering the vast number of iPhone users in India easily beating the above number 4,44,444 it's evident that Apple can recoup the lawsuit expenses through iCloud subscriptions from the Indian market alone within a year.

In a twist of fate, Apple turned a privacy nightmare into a lucrative business opportunity, securing a steady stream of iCloud subscribers who now see data backup as a necessity.

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