Google Will Pay $22.5 Million to Settle FTC Charges it Misrepresented Privacy Assurances to Users of Apple's Safari Internet Browser

Google has agreed to pay a record $22.5 million civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented to users of Apple’s Safari Internet browser that it would not place tracking “cookies” or serve targeted ads to those users, violating an earlier privacy settlement between the company and the FTC. In addition to the civil penalty, the order also requires Google to disable all the tracking cookies it had said it would not place on consumers’ computers.

Google did not admit to violating the law. The FTC said Google broke the terms of a 2011 settlement over privacy missteps related to the now-defunct Buzz, a social networking tool. FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch filed a dissenting statement because he said the FTC should not have accepted Google’s denial of liability, which he called “inexplicable.” Google has said its actions were unintentional and had resulted from a change in Safari of which Google was unaware. When the issue was brought to the company’s attention, it said, it stopped using the cookies and showing personalized ads on Safari browsers. David Vladeck, the director of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said he had little patience for Google’s explanation, and referred to other privacy violations about which Google has also said it was unaware, like collecting personal data with its Street View cars.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the penalty is meant to send a message that “No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place.”