A new lawsuit has alleged that Apple illegally monitored its workers’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while also barring them from discussing their pay and working conditions.

The complaint filed by Amar Bhakta, who works in digital advertising for Apple, in California state court claims the company requires employees to install software on personal devices that they use for work which allows Apple to then access their email, photo libraries, health and “smart home” data as well as other personal information, reported Reuters.

Bhakta says he was barred from talking about his work on podcasts and instructed to remove information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile.

“Apple’s surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the job market, and freedom of speech,” the lawsuit said.

Apple has denied the allegations and instead said that the lawsuit lacks merit and that its workers are trained annually on their rights to discuss their working conditions.

“At Apple, we’re focused on creating the best products and services in the world and we work to protect the inventions our teams create for customers,” the company said.

 

Lawyers for Bhakta also represent two women who have worked at Apple and filed a lawsuit earlier this year. They claim the company systematically underpays female workers in its engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions.

That lawsuit filed in San Francisco alleges that Apple bases workers’ starting pay on their salaries at previous jobs or on their “pay expectations,” which results in lower pay rates for women.

It also claims that Apple’s performance evaluation system, which it uses to establish raises and bonuses, is biased against women.

While rebuffing those claims, Apple issued a statement at the time saying, “Since 2017, Apple has achieved and maintained gender pay equity and every year we partner with an independent third-party expert to examine each team member’s total compensation and make adjustments, where necessary, to ensure that we maintain pay equity.”