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Google and FTC Near Deal for Record $22.5 Million Fine over Safari Privacy Circumvention

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Apr 12, 2001
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission are nearing a deal that would see Google paying a record $22.5 million fine over its tactics to circumvent privacy settings in Safari on iOS to track users' behavior.
The fine is expected to be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. It offers the latest sign of the FTC's stepped-up approach to policing online privacy violations, coming just six months after The Wall Street Journal reported on Google's practices.
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The case centers on a loophole in Safari's default privacy settings, with Google taking advantage of the hole to make the browser think that the user was interacting with a given ad, thus allowing a tracking cookie to be installed. With that cookie installed, it became easy for Google to add additional cookies and to track users across the web as they visited other sites displaying ads from Google's networks.

Google has argued that the tracking was unintentional and that it did not harm consumers, but the Federal Trade Commission pointed to previous statements by Google regarding Safari's privacy settings as evidence that the company was misrepresenting its privacy practices.

Google's tactics are also under scrutiny from a number of state attorneys general, who may yet pursue additional action against the company.

Article Link: Google and FTC Near Deal for Record $22.5 Million Fine over Safari Privacy Circumvention
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/10/google-and-ftc-near-deal-for-record-22-5-million-fine-over-safari-privacy-circumvention/
Even though Chrome sounds like a good browser, this is why I don't use it. I just do not trust Google. I just get the sinking feeling years from now we'll find out Google has been tracking everything you do in your browser.
 
More reason not to use Chrome. Then again... if there's data you don't want to be used this way in general, you shouldn't be putting it online. Still a lame move on Google's part.
 
\-V-/ said:
More reason not to use Chrome. Then again... if there's data you don't want to be used this way in general, you shouldn't be putting it online. Still a lame move on Google's part.
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putting online and surfing the web are totally different things. You should be able to surf around and not have Google tracking you.
 
Yeah, this really did tarnish Googles otherwise chromy reputation (all puns fully intended)
 
This will hit Google hard. They won’t easily swallow that amount, at least at first

But then they’ll lift a second sofa cushion. Problem solved!
 
It's pretty awesome that the fine is substantial as opposed to a simple slap on the wrist and being told not to do it again.

I didn't use Google services much at all before this story first broke and stopped using Google almost completely afterward.

It's also nice to see Apple moving away from Google as a business partner and perhaps this story will cause many of the consistent Google users to reconsider their use.
 
I liked Google back when they created a good search engine.

Now I hate Google because they have littered the internet with advertising.
 
Aodhan said:
Even though Chrome sounds like a good browser, this is why I don't use it. I just do not trust Google. I just get the sinking feeling years from now we'll find out Google has been tracking everything you do in your browser.
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Pretty sure they're already tracking us and not just in the browser. Give the privacy policy a read http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. It's pretty enlightening and also a little creepy in my opinion.
 
Every now and again I start thinking "you know....Google isn't all that bad. Maybe I'll start using some more of their services".

Then articles like this come out and I remember why I quit using their stuff in the first place.
 
MacRumors said:
It offers the latest sign of the FTC's stepped-up approach to policing online privacy violations...
Click to expand...

Stepped up evil -> stepped up fines. Makes perfect sense.

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vampyr said:
I liked Google back when they created a good search engine.

Now I hate Google because they have littered the internet with advertising.
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And they've even polluted their own search results with pay-for-placement ads.
How the mighty have fallen.
 
Yet another example of how suing companies for things like this makes no difference. Google won't even feel that. Just making them admit they hacked browsers will cost them more in brand damages.
 
ever since google got busted driving around europe stealing wifi data, then saying "oh we didnt know we were doing that, its a bug" i stopped trusting them.. and once again theyre showing what kind of snakes they are. They couldve been a really cool company and gone far but greed is a powerful force.
 
To be perfectly honest, I don't understand why people freak out about these "privacy concerns." It's not like they're stealing your social security number or your credit cards, they're tracking your web habits to better tailor their services to you. I'd rather have ads specifically designed for me than just random whatever. They're not tricking me into buying anything, they're just saying hey, you looked at t-mobile.com recently, here's what they offer if you're still interested.
 
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