Google Facing FTC Fine Over Safari Privacy Breach

suraj.sun writes "Bloomberg is reporting on Google's negotiation with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over 'how big a fine, which could amount to more than $10 million, it will have to pay for its breach of Apple's Safari browser. The fine would be the first by the FTC for a violation of Internet privacy as the agency steps up enforcement of the Web.' Last year, Google agreed to a settlement in which the FTC would monitor Google's privacy practices for an extended period of time. 'The 20-year settlement bars Google from misrepresenting how it handles user information and requires the company to follow policies that protect consumer data in new products.' This February, Google was found to be bypassing privacy controls in Safari by making the browser think a user was submitting a form, when they actually weren't. '(The code used by Google was part of its program to place the "+1" button in advertisements.) At the time, the company issued a statement saying that the circumvention wasn't intentional, but privacy groups were still quick to file complaints with the FTC over Google's actions. That was quickly followed by a class-action lawsuit and an investigation by European regulators.'"

Comments

Google has enemies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google gets big, makes powerful enemies. News at 11.
Funny how we only really vague, trivial shit gets Google in to the court room.

For all those with a clue, Google's actions are really a workaround to a broken, stupid browser privacy scheme that does nothing to protect users from the real bad guys. Just a way to fix web pages for a browser that's not standards compliant. Many times less harmless to the hackery you have to commit to get a web page to work properly in IE6.