Public apologies from Apple are rare, but not as infrequent as you'd think. The tech giant has been forced to say mea culpa for some pretty major snafus over the past decade.
In April 2011, data researchers discovered that Apple was collecting years of records of Wi-Fi network spots that users passed by with their iPhones -- essentially tracking their location -- even when users specifically instructed their phones not to collect that information.
As Apple often does in these situations, the company held off for about a week after the issue first blew up in the media before issuing any comment. Once Apple finally weighed in, it didn't exactly apologize.
In a Q&A on its website, Apple posted a question about why the iPhone continued to collect location data from users when they turned off location services. Answer: "It shouldn't. This is a bug, which we plan to fix shortly."
Apple also acknowledged that iPhones were failing to delete old location data. That too was a bug, Apple said: The data was supposed to be wiped after seven days.
Apple eventually fixed the bugs with a software update.