Apple has been hit with a class action lawsuit for enabling Wi-Fi Assist automatically without informing users, Apple Insider reports. The new iOS 9 feature uses cellular data to boost a user’s Internet speed when the local Wi-Fi network quality is poor, which plaintiffs William Scott Phillips and Suzanne Schmidt Phillips allege has cost users more than $5 million in cellular data charges. The complaint centers around the fact that Apple set the feature to be enabled by default when users update to iOS 9 and only worked to inform the public about the possibility of extra data usage after a series of stories outed the problem. Apple has addressed the issue, saying that average users won’t see much of an increase in data usage with Wi-Fi Assist enabled, but the lawsuit claims that “reasonable and average consumers use their iPhones for streaming of music, videos, and running various applications — all of which can use significant data.”
Apple sued for activating Wi-Fi Assist by default
Dan Pye
Dan Pye was a news editor at iLounge. He's been involved with technology his whole life, and started writing about it in 2009. He's written about everything from iPhone and iPad cases to Apple TV accessories.