Google to pay $22.5 million to settle FTC charges over tracking cookies in Apple's Safari browser

Google has agreed to pay a $22.5 million penalty to settle its dispute with the FTC, over the company's role in bypassing browser settings in Apple's Safari web browser. Although it stated that it wouldn't use tracking cookies or targeted ads in the web browser, a loophole was discovered, violating a previous privacy settlement between the FTC and Google. According to the commission, the company exploited an exception in the browser's default settings, adding a temporary cookie that could temporarily open up access to all cookies from the DoubleClick domain. While the exploit was patched by Google, for a limited time, it was able to track Safari users that had explicitly opted out. The FTC's full statement is right after the break.

Continue reading Google to pay $22.5 million to settle FTC charges over tracking cookies in Apple's Safari browser

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Google to pay $22.5 million to settle FTC charges over tracking cookies in Apple's Safari browser originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.