By Stewart Mitchell - 28 Jan 2013 - pcpro
Google is facing legal action in the UK over claims it collected data using cookies that circumvented privacy Safari settings.
The UK case, brought by campaign group Safari Users Against Google's Secret Tracking, has ten signatories. Lawyers acting for the concerned parties are urging more people to come forward.
In August last year, Google paid $22.5 million to settle a case in the US, where it was accused of breaching privacy after bypassing Safari's secure browser settings - and UK users want the company to pay here, too.
"Through its DoubleClick adverts, Google designed a code to circumvent privacy settings in order to deposit the cookies on computers in order to provide user-targeted advertising," said law firm Olswang, which is representing the group.
"The claimants thought that cookies were being blocked on their devices because of Safari's strict default privacy settings and separate assurances being given by Google at the time," the firm said. "This was not the case."
Not surprisingly, the law firm is seeking recompense for the damage to Google's victims, calling for the company to "give Safari users a proper explanation about what happened, to apologise and, where appropriate, compensate the victims of their intrusion".
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/379552/uk-safari-users-launch-legal-attack-on-google============
from the US Action in Aug 2012
Google settles for $22.5m fine in Safari privacy suitGoogle has agreed to pay a $22.5m fine to settle charges that the company misled users about the company's use of behaviour-tracking cookies.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that the company would be paying a record fine over charges that users of the Safari web browser were served with cookies when visiting Google sites, circumventing the browser privacy settings.
According to the FTC, Google
misled customers when it said that it would not use behaviour-tracking tools with Safari on its sites. As part of the settlement, the company will be required to bring its policies in line with the original promises made to users.
"The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order," said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2197919/google-settles-for-usd225m-fine-in-privacy-suit
