U.S. regulators will require Google Inc to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple Inc’s Safari browser, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Members of the Federal Trade Commission voted to approve a consent decree that will allow Google to settle the agency’s investigation but admit no liability, said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak on the record.<\/p>\n
An official announcement is expected within days, the second source said.<\/p>\n
The probe was prompted by allegations that Google used computer code known as “cookies” to trick Apple’s Safari browser so Google could monitor users who had blocked such tracking.<\/p>\n
Google has said the tracking was inadvertent and that it collected no personal information like names, addresses or credit card data.<\/p>\n
But the tracking was done despite assurances that Safari could be set to protect users’ privacy and prompted an FTC probe into whether Google violated a consent decree signed last year. Google said then it would not misrepresent its privacy policies.<\/p>\n
Google also faces potential sanctions from other governments. It is being investigated by the European Union to determine if the company complies with Europe’s stricter privacy laws.<\/p>\n
The top search engine provider is also the subject of a wide-ranging antitrust investigation by the FTC and European regulators over accusations that it manipulated search results to favor its own products.<\/p>\n
The FTC declined to comment on the Safari matter.<\/p>\n
Google declined to comment on any settlement but said the investigation was prompted by a 2009 help center web page that predated a change in Apple’s cookie-handling policy.<\/p>\n
“We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple’s browsers,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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