Apple is sued for exposing private information via iPhones and iPads

Lawsuits against Apple have been filed by two separate groups of the iPhone and iPad users who allege that certain software applications were passing personal user information to third-party advertisers without consent.

The lawsuits filed with a federal court in California are seeking a class action status. The complainants seek an injunction on passing the user information without their consent as well as financial compensation.

Both cases can be consolidated into one by judges at some point says Majed Nachawati, a partner at law firm Fears & Nachawati, one of the attorneys for the complainants.

Along with Apple, makers of popular apps such as Textplus4, Paper Toss, Weather Channel, Dictionary.com, Talking Tom Cat and Pumpkin Maker were also named co-defendants in the lawsuits filed on December 23.

The lawsuits follow a December 18 report in the Wall Street Journal that said smartphones apps may be sharing personal data "widely and regularly," and that iPhone apps transmitted more data than apps on phones using Google's Android operating system.

"We are also looking at Google's Android platform and a lawsuit against them has not been ruled out," Nachawati said.

"None of the defendants adequately informed plaintiffs of their practices, and none of the defendants obtained plaintiffs' consent to do so," one lawsuit alleged.