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Google Facing Tens of Millions of Dollars in Fines over Safari Privacy Circumvention

"Google Inc. (GOOG) is negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how big a fine it will have to pay"

Anyone else find this the most F'ed up part? That they can negotiate there fine.
 
longofest said:
Go ahead and fine Google, but at what point do you say that Apple should be held accountable as well? I kind of see this as a lock manufacturer (Apple) making a sub-standard lock (Safari) and selling it to customers. An intruder (Google) breaks in to the customer's house by easily busting the sub-standard lock.

The sub-standard security doesn't make what Google did right, but at some point the customer should be looking at Apple and asking "WTF are you providing me here?"

I still think iOS is better overall than any other mobile OS around, but I'm not against holding Apple to the fire for being lax in security.
Click to expand...

Ok, so if someone breaks into your house, and the police catch him, you're going to say "excuse me, Mr. Officer? I know he stole my TV but you really should lock me up too for not installing the best lock on my door. There are better ones and it's my fault for not buying one. Really, I deserve to be punished too."

I gotta say it: Really??
 
Were you really damaged by this? The fines pay for the legal & technical investigation done by the government. I'd rather the money to pay for that work come from these fines rather than increased debt.

nwcs said:
What is wrong is that the fine goes to the government instead of all of us who use Safari whose privacy was negotiated around. It's impractical, sure, but the damage was done to us not the government.
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longofest said:
Go ahead and fine Google, but at what point do you say that Apple should be held accountable as well? I kind of see this as a lock manufacturer (Apple) making a sub-standard lock (Safari) and selling it to customers. An intruder (Google) breaks in to the customer's house by easily busting the sub-standard lock.

The sub-standard security doesn't make what Google did right, but at some point the customer should be looking at Apple and asking "WTF are you providing me here?"

I still think iOS is better overall than any other mobile OS around, but I'm not against holding Apple to the fire for being lax in security.
Click to expand...

So what you're saying here is that if I don't put a substantial lock on my house I deserve to get broken into and robbed because I didn't do enough to thwart the crriminals? Good Grief!
 
So tax loopholes are ok but not safari loopholes. Got it.

And for the record... I'm kidding.
 
Can't Feel Sorry For Google

One US Government department lets a contract to Google one day and the next another government agency fines them. Must be a break even deal.
 
nwcs said:
What is wrong is that the fine goes to the government instead of all of us who use Safari whose privacy was negotiated around. It's impractical, sure, but the damage was done to us not the government.
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This isn't a class-action lawsuit, nobody sued Google for damages. Why should people who didn't bother to sue Google or participate in a lawsuit be automatically awarded damages?

EDIT: Actually, the article says that Google is in violation of a prior agreement with the FTC, therefore the FTC is the aggrieved party. Maybe you can still sue. If you want an award, why don't you?
 
Google Inc. (GOOG) is negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how big a fine it will have to pay for its breach of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Safari Internet browser, a person familiar with the matter said. [...]
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Here's a question:

If Google is allowed to "negotiate" with the Feds over how big their fine will be, why can't I negotiate with the CHP over how big my fine will be when I get a speeding ticket?

Edit: Ack! Power1080 beat me to it! :p
 
Last edited:
So Google does this tracking in iOS. What about Android? They don`t track anybody in their own OS?!?
 
power1080 said:
"Google Inc. (GOOG) is negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how big a fine it will have to pay"

Anyone else find this the most F'ed up part? That they can negotiate there fine.
Click to expand...

I bet the DOJ will investigate Apple for Google colluding with the FTC now.
 
longofest said:
In general no, but you can if your landlord was negligent in providing adequate security.
Click to expand...

If a burglar finds an open door, it's still illegal for him to steal. Apple may have been negligent, but Google performed the illegal act, plain and simple.
 
power1080 said:
"Google Inc. (GOOG) is negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over how big a fine it will have to pay"

Anyone else find this the most F'ed up part? That they can negotiate there fine.
Click to expand...

"Tens of millions of dollars? Wow that's a lot. Lets look at your search history for a little bit, shall we? Oh wait, you want to reduce your fine? Yeah I think that would probably be wise Mr. Llama Fetish."
 
jdoll021 said:
Here's a question:

If Google is allowed to "negotiate" with the Feds over how big their fine will be, why can't I negotiate with the CHP over how big my fine will be when I get a speeding ticket?
Click to expand...

Because the press and precedent of Google getting caught and fined is more important overall than the $ amount.

They could be fined $1 and the legal precedent gets set AND Google gets the bad press for the violation. The money is really inconsequential.
 
nwcs said:
What is wrong is that the fine goes to the government instead of all of us who use Safari whose privacy was negotiated around. It's impractical, sure, but the damage was done to us not the government.
Click to expand...

No, that's not the way it works. This is through the FTC, this is not a court case. The FTC may deem it to be true and assess a fine. Period.
Should that occur, however, it definitely open things up wide for there to be civil class action suits ( which is what you're asking for ) and or a federal case brought forth by the Attorney General ( which won't happen )
 
AustinIllini said:
That's a fair point. The question is whether Apple didn't put locks on the door or whether Google picked them. This report makes it look like the latter, but the former is definitely possible.
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It more Apple put sub standard locks on the door.

While it was Google's fault for going around them. It does not change the fact in terms of security Apple lags pretty far behind and is in the sub standard catigory.

Case and point of Apple substandard security settings would be the flashback Trojan virus. Between poor default settings and running on an out dated version of Java they got hit. The hole was patch PC side months before hand but Apple sat on it until they got nailed. They still have not fixed the default setting issue.
 
This is the modern world, Facebook will end up the same one day. I use Googlemail like many no doubt, what other free great imap services are there? Hotmail isn't imap.

I am annoyed though at the fact I never knew they did this! But it's the price you pay for using the internet, still it is rather bad.

Can you go into your Hotmail account and setup imap?
 
longofest said:
In general no, but you can if your landlord was negligent in providing adequate security.
Click to expand...

It's your fault if you rented property without adequate protection, not your landloard's. This growing expaction that someone else should be responsible for your well-being is crazy.
 
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