What’s the monetary value of honeymoon photos, 15 years worth of contacts, and other data stored on your iPhone? Following a successful U.K. lawsuit against Apple by Deric White, the answer is “at least £1,200 ($1,810).” According to a report in the Standard, White took his iPhone 5 to the Apple Store on Regent Street to resolve an apparent error message, receiving the phone back — wiped of its prior content by support staff, without having asked White for his consent.
The Mirror reports that a lawyer for Apple laid the blame at White’s feet, noting that by coming to the store for repair service, “he made the decision to hand the phone over to them knowing the iPhone was not backed up and the pictures and videos were therefore at risk… It is something we inform all customers of before they carry out any action on phones or iPads.” Regardless, the judge found that Apple’s “employees were negligent in the treatment of the claimant’s telephone, causing the claimant loss of photographs of particular sentimental value and the loss of all his contacts.”
Valuing his loss at £5,000 ($7,540), White said that his “life was saved on that phone,” including his “favorite video of a giant tortoise biting [his] hand on honeymoon in the Seychelles.” White won a £1,200 judgment against Apple, plus £773 in court costs, after Apple refused settlement offers of £7,000 or a new computer screen and printer worth £1,000.
