FTC Reportedly Fining Google $22.5 Million Over Safari Privacy Abuse 175
New submitter Slashbots writes "Google will settle with the FTC for nearly $22.5 million over its bypassing of Apple's Safari browser privacy settings. It would be the largest settlement with the FTC over privacy-related charges ever. By abusing a privacy hole in Safari, Google circumvented user settings to show them advertising and track the user. 'Safari, unlike other browsers, blocks cookies from ad networks like Google's. But because of a loophole, Google had been able to avoid the block, as researchers discovered in February. It installed cookies and tracked Safari users across the Web to show them personalized ads.'"
Re:Illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Saying Google "used a loophole" is just a loaded way of saying Safari had a bug. The technique had been known for at least two years [wsj.com], and was used by companies other than Google.