Google Safari Privacy Settlement Close to Approval

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Google Safari Privacy Settlement Close to Approval

By Sarah Pierce

Reports are surfacing that a federal judge will sign off on a $22.5 million settlement between Google and the Federal Trade Commission to resolve charges Google tracked Safari users without their permission.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said this weekend at a hearing in San Francisco that her “preliminary view” is to approve the deal, according to news sources.

The Google Safari settlement will resolve FTC charges that Google circumvented the privacy settings of Safari users and deceived them into believing they would not place tracking cookies or serve targeted ads. This violated a 2011 FTC privacy settlement that banned Google from misleading users about privacy.

If approved, the $22.5 million Google Safari settlement will be the largest penalty the FTC has ever obtained for a consent violation.

“The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said. “No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers.”

In addition to the fine, Google promised to let all Safari tracking cookies expire by next year.

That’s not enough, according to advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, which is attempting to block the FTC Google Safari settlement. The organization is arguing Google should have to admit liability in the case and be forced to destroy all data, including IP addresses, collected from Safari users rather than let them expire. The group also says the fine is too small as it only represents 1/1000th of Goggle’s ad revenue.

Judge Illston says she seemed “interested” in the argument that Google should delete all data.

Unfortunately, the FTC Google Safari settlement will not provide monetary relief to consumers, but the company still faces a number of class action lawsuits filed earlier this year. The Google Safari tracking class action lawsuits accuse Google of knowingly violating federal wiretapping lawsuit and committing fraud, as well as violating the terms of its Google Buzz privacy settlement with the FTC.

Updated November 19th, 2012

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