A class-action lawsuit brought to Apple for allegedly deceiving customers about the infamous Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities has been dismissed.
Meltdown security vulnerabilities were denied.
Reuters published U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, located in San Jose, California, ruling that the plaintiffs could not establish that Apple was aware of the vulnerabilities and instead kept quiet selling their devices at prices that were too high in turn (Source). They also failed to prove Apple offered security patches, significantly reducing device performance.
Apple and other tech giants discovered the flaws in the early months of 2018. The users, who filed the class-action lawsuit at that time, said Apple was aware of the weaknesses even before June 2017 but was silent until the New York Times report required them to talk about it (Source).
Affirmative and vague claims of false representation
The judge, however, says that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate Apple’s advertisements in their purchase selections. Apple’s claims that their gadgets are “secure” and “built with privacy (opens in new tab) in mind” were insufficiently vague to be substantiated by their assertions. The judge also ruled that Apple’s claims that future processors were faster than previous ones weren’t bogus, just because patches might have caused them to slow down.
“Plaintiffs have failed to allege an affirmative misrepresentation, an actionable omission, and actual reliance” on false statements made from Apple, Davila wrote.
The plaintiffs have until June 30th to file an appeal against the decision.
Spectre and Meltdown were two significant security holes discovered in the early part of 2018 that enabled threat actors to access the contents of memory of the vulnerable ending point. After analyzing the initial report, the researchers discovered that nearly all devices made during the last decade had vulnerabilities.
It was one of the most significant security holes.
To make things even more complicated, Many OEMs have scrambled to release a fix in the shortest time possible by releasing ineffective solutions that only slow the devices down and, in some instances, even cause them to be bricked.
