The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Google are close to finalizing a deal in which Google would pay a $22.5 Million fine for circumventing the privacy settings for some of its users. The issue focuses around Google’s exploitation of a loophole in the privacy settings of Apple’s Safari Internet browser. By default, Safari blocks all third-party cookies. However, if a Safari user interacts with an ad, Safari will accept a cookie from the advertiser. Taking advantage of this system, DoubleClick, a global Internet advertising solutions company owned by Google, created the impression that the user was interacting with DoubleClick by sending an invisible form. Thus, Safari would allow DoubleClick to install a tracking cookie, which in turn made it easy for Google to add more cookies to track users and display ads from Google’s networks.

While Google has claimed that the tracking was inadvertent, the FTC stands firm in their belief that Google has violated its October 2011 agreement in which Google agreed not to misrepresent its privacy practices to its users. The FTC, focusing on a 2009 help center page relating to opting out of Google tracking, claims that Google misrepresented that users did not need to opt out of Google tracking due to Safari’s default privacy settings. The settlement amounts to a $16,000 fine per violation, per day, the greatest fine assessed in FTC history.

Source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/07/10/google_set_to_pay_record_225m_fine_for_violating_apple_users_privacy.html

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