'Ethical iPhone' protests hit Apple stores

Protesters visited a half-dozen Apple stores around the world to deliver petitions calling for reforms in the working conditions at factories run by Apple's suppliers in China and other overseas locations.

A demonstration at Apple's Grand Central Terminal store drew a small crowd of around a dozen people, who peacefully handed their petition -- hundreds of pages stacked in a shipping box -- to the store's manager. "I'm a big fan of Apple products, but I can no longer ethically support products that harm the people that make them," said Shelby Knox, an organizing director with Change.org who participated. "When people join together, we can hold companies accountable." The protests are the offline outgrowth of an online petition drive launched two weeks ago on social activism site Change.org. Created by Mark Shields, a self-described lifelong Apple customer who says he was "shocked to learn of the abusive working conditions in many of Apple's supplier factories," the petition has drawn almost 200,000 signatures since its launch. A parallel petition effort, led by corporate accountability lobbying group SumOfUs.org, has drawn another 50,000 signatures. Both groups teamed up for the protest. The day began with petition deliveries at Apple stores in Bangalore and London, and will continue with events in in Washington, DC; San Francisco and Sydney.

Hackers protesting harsh working conditions at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn dumped what they said were megabytes of private data belonging to the outsourcing giant.