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Google Facing Class Action Lawsuits for Tracking Safari Users
By Matt O’Donnell
Google has been hit with several class action lawsuits claiming the company knowingly violated federal wiretapping laws and committed fraud by circumventing privacy settings on Safari, Apple’s default web browser. The Google Safari tracking class action lawsuits stem from the discovery last month that Google had installed a secret code that allowed it to work its way around Safari’s blockage of third-party cookies and serve people browser cookies from third-party sites that Google operates.
Google immediately denied that the behavior was intentional and disabled the code. A Google spokesperson said the Safari application did not expose or collect users’ personal information to advertisers, and that Google had merely “used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled” within Safari. This contradicts evidence uncovered by Stanford graduate student Jonathan Mayer — who blew the lid off the Safari tracking scandal — that suggests Google “tricked” Safari into accepting third-party cookies.
The Google Safari cookie class action lawsuits allege Google knowingly violated the Federal Wiretap Act, the Stored Electronic Communication Act, and the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by not disclosing what it was doing to users. They also charge Google with violating the terms of its Google Buzz settlement with the FTC, which subjected the company to regular privacy audits and banned it from future privacy misrepresentations.
Updated March 9th, 2012
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One thought on Google Facing Class Action Lawsuits for Tracking Safari Users
Thank God they’re banned from future privacy misrepresentations. This good news is why I’m changing my Safari settings so I quit using Yahoo! and start using Google.