Google to Pay $17 Million to Settle Privacy Case

cold fjord writes "The New York Times reports, 'Google agreed on Monday to pay $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia ... The case involved Google's bypassing of privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser to use cookies to track users and show them advertisements in 2011 and 2012. Google has said it discontinued circumventing the settings early last year, after the practice was publicly reported, and stopped tracking Safari users and showing them personalized ads. ... the case is one of a growing pile of government investigations, lawsuits and punishments related to privacy matters at the company. They include cases involving a social networking tool called Buzz, illegal data collection by Street View vehicles and accusations of wiretapping to show personalized ads in Gmail. '" From the DOJ, the settlement (PDF).

Comments

Re:What law did Google break?

[Anonymous Coward]

First four entries in Appendix A on the PDF that you are having trouble with:

• Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Ala. Code 8-19-1 through 8-19-15
• Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 44-1521, et seq.; Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 13-2316(A)(6) and (D); Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 44-7301, et seq
• Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Ark. Code Ann. 4-88-101 through 115; Arkansas Computer-Related Crimes Act, Ark. Code Ann. 5-41-106; Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act, Ark. Code Ann. 4-111-101 through 105
• California - Cal. Bus & Prof. Code 17200, et seq.; Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 17500; Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, Cal. Penal Code 502

All 37 states plus the District of Columbia are represented in the appendix.