Google fined $17 mn for snooping on Safari users

Internet giant Google Inc yesterday agreed to pay $17 million to 37 US states and the District of Columbia for violating consumer privacy by tracking their web usage in 2011 and 2012 without their knowledge.

Google is alleged to have bypassed privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser and used cookies to snoop on users' activities online in order to find out what types of advertisements would appeal to them.

Through its DoubleClick advertising platform, Google sets third-party cookies - small files set in consumers' web browsers in order to gather information about those consumers.

Depending on the type of cookie, this information could include consumers' web-surfing habits. Apple's Safari web browser is set by default to block third-party cookies, including cookies set by DoubleClick to track a consumer's browsing history.

From June 2011, until February 2012, Google altered its DoubleClick coding to circumvent those default privacy settings on Safari, without consumers' knowledge or consent, said the New York Attorney General, one of the states that sued Google.

The Attorneys General alleges that Google's circumvention of Safari's default privacy settings for blocking third-party cookies violates state consumer protection and related computer privacy laws.

The states claim that Google failed to inform Safari users that it was circumventing their privacy settings and that Google's earlier representation that third-party cookies were blocked for Safari users was misleading.

"Consumers should be able to know whether there are other eyes surfing the web with them. By tracking millions of people without their knowledge, Google violated not only their privacy, but also their trust," said, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

''We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers," the company said in a statement. "We're pleased to have worked with the state attorneys general to reach this agreement."

This is the second time that US regulators have come down hard on Google snooping on Safari users. The US Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million last year for the same violation.