Jonathan Stempel for Reuters:

Apple Inc must defend against a lawsuit accusing it of letting advertisers secretly track the activity of millions of mobile device users, a federal judge ruled, but Google Inc and several other defendants were dismissed from the case.

The suit alleges that Apple designed devices like the iPhone to collect data from users when apps were downloaded, without permission.

Several other companies including AdMarval, Admob, Flurry and Medialets were dismissed from the case.