As expected, Google has agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to pay $22.5 million, the largest such fine in the agency’s history, for violating an earlier settlement with the FTC not to misrepresent Google privacy policies to consumers. Specifically, the FTC says that in 2011 and 2012, Google placed advertising tracking cookies, or tiny files, on millions of personal computers that used Apple’s Safari browser, despite the fact that Google said Safari blocked the cookies by default. As Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC, said in a statement.
“The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order…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.”
Interestingly, the FCC Commission vote wasn’t unanimous in this case, 4 to 1, with Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch dissenting.
