Apple sued for activating Wi-Fi Assist by default

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.”