Google Faces Record Fines for Bypassing Privacy Settings

In 2012, Google agreed to pay a record $22.5 million FTC fine and was hit with multiple lawsuits for violating its own statements and bypassing privacy settings on Apple’s Safari web browser. Although Google had told Safari users that they could use the browser’s privacy settings to prevent tracking, the company also deployed code that enabled its own software to bypass these settings. Critics noted that the incident “represents another PR blow” for Google and called for the company to “make a pro-privacy offering to restore your users’ trust.”