http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-08-09/google-agrees-to-record-22-dot-5m-fine-on-privacy
It's not just big banks that can be accused of preying on the common folk, big technology company Google wants a bigger piece of your privacy pie. Google has agreed to pay a fine of US$22.5 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it had bypassed privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser to be able to track users of the browser and show them personalized advertisements. Google is also charged with breaking the terms of a 2011 settlement over privacy missteps related to the Buzz, its now defunct social networking tool.
Earlier, Google had got in trouble with the FTC for collecting personal data transmitted
over unprotected Wi-Fi networks as Google cars cruised neighborhoods
around the world taking pictures for the company's online mapping
service. Google was fined $25,000 for impeding the investigation
into that matter. Google is also subject to a separate FTC inquiry over its potential abuse of dominant position in Internet search, to
highlight its own services over rivals, to drive up online advertising
prices.
Google uses cookies, which are small
files that contain information about Web users, to show personalized ads
to the users as they surf the internet. Safari blocks these ad network
cookies, but Google exploited a technological loophole to avoid the
block,
install cookies and tracked Safari users to show them personalized ads. Per Google, all it wanted to do was to create a way
for Safari users to press on a button signalling that they recommended an ad.
Google said it didn't realize this tinkering altered Safari's automatic
privacy settings in a way that allowed for broader surveillance.
The $22.5 million fine may be the largest civil penalty ever levied by the FTC but it is loose change for one of the world's richest tech companies which generates that amount in revenue roughly every four hours.
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