Apple is being sued once again. This time, the company is being sued over the Apple Watch, which some of its key health-related features, according to the lawsuit, are biased against people of color.
In the Southern District of New York, a group of people has filed a lawsuit against Apple. Apple is in a court dispute because its smartwatch’s blood oximeter health feature is said to be biased against minorities. According to the documents, a New Yorker named Alex Morales says that the Apple Watch he bought over a year ago is “supposed to measure blood oxygen levels, and he thought it did this regardless of skin tone, which was important to him because of his skin tone.”
According to the legal document, Morales believed that the watch he purchased was supposed to “measure blood oxygen levels, and he believed it did this without regard to skin tone” and “would not have purchased” or “paid as much” for the item had he known otherwise. He also said, “as a result of the false and misleading representations, the product is sold at a premium price, approximately no less than $400, excluding tax and sales”. So Morales is starting a class action lawsuit, which will include all New Yorkers who bought an Apple Watch within the time limit. In addition, the lawsuit included research notes from a study done during the pandemic.
Checking the percentage of blood oxygen saturation was done to help test COVID-19 cases. They talked about this study and said that it “confirmed the clinical significance of racial bias of pulse oximetry.” There have been reports for decades that these kinds of devices are much less accurate at measuring blood oxygen levels based on skin color.” Apple has responded to this lawsuit by saying that the Apple Watch is only made for “general fitness and wellness purposes.” The measurements from the Blood Oxygen app are not meant to be used for medical purposes, like self-diagnosis or consultation with a doctor
