FTC Asks Google To Pay $22.5 Million For Safari Privacy Breach

Sites include Apple.com , Google.com . Published on July 25th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Google is paying out again. This time it’s $22.5 million that the FTC deemed it liable for in a case brought by Apple.

Google it is claimed had overridden Safari’s privacy settings in an effort to track users and many were certain that Google was going to be fined. The estimate was in the tens of millions but in the end the fined ended being just being ‘five hours of earnings’.

This won’t be the first time Google has faced pressure from the authorities for its abuse of user privacy and whilst in most cases the search giant was able to avoid paying money out of pocket, this time it abused the privacy of a fellow tech giant. Apple is fiercely proprietary over its software and products and the iPhone and iPad comes with Safari built in. This doesn’t mean that Google can’t access the platforms (many Apple products users install Google Chrome); this time though Google went too far in trying to control the browser of hard-core Apple users (those who use Safari).

Google quickly took to explaining the mishap after the fine was handed down and said among other things that “We didn’t anticipate that this would happen, and we have now started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers. It’s important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”

The truth is Google always knows what it is doing. Fines for the folks at Google are all part and parcel of the quest for complete domination of the web and the people that use it.