Google has agreed to pay $17 million in fines to settle charges that it secretly monitored some consumers' online activities. The fine was imposed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Monday.
Attorneys general from 28 states have accused Google of violating consumer protection and privacy laws by bypassing privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser to display targeted ads.
“Consumers should be able to know if someone is tracking their online activity,” Schneiderman said. “By tracking millions of people without their knowledge, Google violated not only their privacy, but also their trust.”
The case arose after the discovery of Google’s method of serving targeted ads using “cookies.” Google announced on its website that Safari’s privacy settings can prevent Google from tracking these cookies. But a report by the Wall Street Journal last year revealed that Google was able to bypass these settings by exploiting a loophole in the Safari browser.
