Deal with FTC Approved by US Federal Judge to Settle "Safari Browser Privacy Flap”

In San Francisco, US District Judge Susan Illston has approved a negotiated settlement between Google and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in which Google has agreed to pay a fine of $22.5 million to resolve alleged federal privacy violations. The FTC has described the settlement as the largest fine it has levied involving Internet privacy, while others, particularly the consumer’s rights group, Consumer Watchdog, have argued that the settlement is not sufficient to deter the Internet search giant from future transgressions, given Google reported $9.7 billion profit last year. Judge Susan Iltson has ruled that the negotiated agreement is “fair, adequate and reasonable”. The settlement arises from an investigation by the FTC into Google’s use of software “cookies” to track Internet websites visited by users of Apple’s Safari web browser. Google had stated earlier on its web site that it could not track the online activities of Safari users so long as these users did not change Safari’s privacy settings. The FTC held the inconsistency between Google’s posted message and its actual tracking activities were in violation of a consent decree from an earlier case involving Google’s now discontinued Buzz social networking service. In that case the FTC had stated that "the … settlement bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a comprehensive privacy program, and calls for regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years." Google insists that it did not intentionally bypass Safari’s default settings and did not admit to any legal violation, but nevertheless agreed to disable the cookies. For more commentary, visit: http://tinyurl.com/d4je74w and http://tinyurl.com/cz84vs8 Summary by: Thomas Wong