Did an iPhone just have the last laugh? While a business man thought he was having a fun time with sex workers, keeping his wife in the dark, ‘deleted’ messages from his iPhone have now become the reason for his messy divorce.
The businessman in question, from England, is taking legal action against Apple after his wife discovered messages he had sent to sex workers on their family iMac, despite him believing that they had been permanently deleted from his iPhone.
Discovery of deleted messages
As per a report in The Times, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, had used iMessage to communicate with sex workers. He thought he had deleted the incriminating messages from his iPhone.
However, due to the synchronisation of devices linked by the same Apple ID, the messages remained accessible on the family’s iMac. This revelation led to his wife filing for divorce.
Claim against Apple
The businessman is suing Apple for 5 million pounds, claiming that the company failed to inform users that deleting a message on one device does not remove it from all linked devices.
“If you are told a message is deleted, you are entitled to believe it’s deleted,” he told the outlet.
Impact on marriage
The discovery of the messages had severe personal repercussions for the man. His wife’s decision to divorce has cost him over 5 million pounds.
He described the experience as “painful and raw,” suggesting that a more rational conversation could have saved his marriage if the messages hadn’t been discovered in such a harsh manner.
“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 explained. “It was a very brutal way of finding out [for my wife],” he went on to add.
Legal argument & class-action suit
The man’s lawyer, Simon Walton, in an interaction with The Telegraph revealed that Apple had not been clear with users about the mechanics of message deletion.
“Apple had not been clear with users as to what happens to messages they send and receive and, importantly, delete,” Walton said, arguing, that the iPhone’s notification that “messages have been deleted” is misleading, as the messages can still be found on other linked devices.
He expressed interest in hearing from other Apple customers who have experienced similar issues, aiming to turn this lawsuit into a class-action suit.
Call for clarity
The businessman insists that clearer communication from Apple could have prevented this situation. “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,” he stated.
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