In the Internet age, keeping hold of private information has become sacrosanct. That’s why when solutions like Google Maps are released to the public, there are all kinds of courts ensuring that the information they gather isn’t private.

They also make sure that if there’s even a little bit of private data collected by the company, it’s well protected.

A recent court ruling mandates that Apple (News - Alert) must show in detail how the company is complying with a previous court order on turning over evidence in a privacy lawsuit. This particular order was issued after the plaintiff claimed that Apple was actually withholding documents that pertained to the case.

The lawsuit in question involves Apple being accused of gathering information from users’ iPhones that, among other things, divulged where the customer was from one minute to the next.

This information was accessible even if the phone’s geo-location software was supposedly turned off.

The judge in the case, Paul S. Grewal, issued the ruling that considered it “unacceptable” that Apple had taken three months to prove that it had turned over any evidence at all. “Luckily for the plaintiffs, Apple has provided more than enough evidence itself to suggest to the court that it has not fully complied with the court’s order,” Grewal wrote in the March 6 order.

“In light of Apple’s performance in this case, the court cannot rely on its representations that this time it really has or will produce all responsive documents.”

Because of its reluctance to submit these documents, the judge has issued several orders forcing the company to reveal its data-transferring operations – something it normally works quite hard to keep under wraps.