Policy —

US, Europe investigate Google’s bypass of Safari privacy settings

US and European officials are investigating Google's method of serving up …

The US Federal Trade Commission and European regulators have opened investigations into Google's recent circumvention of the default privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser.

Privacy advocates asked the FTC to investigate last month after it was discovered that Google was using special code that served up advertising cookies to Safari users despite privacy settings intended to block cookies. Google acknowledged the problem, but said it was an accident and that it would discontinue the practice. But the Wall Street Journal reported last night that the FTC is now investigating whether the Safari cookie use violated a legal settlement with the government, in which Google promised that it wouldn't misrepresent its privacy practices to consumers.

Google's Safari tracking is also being investigated by CNIL, a French data protection commission, which is conducting a broad investigation into Google's privacy practices on behalf of the European Union. CNIL has added the Safari privacy setting circumvention to its existing investigation, the Journal reported. European regulators recently said Google's new privacy policy—which allows for more data sharing across Google services—violates European law.

A Google spokesperson told the Journal that "We will of course cooperate with any officials who have questions… But it's important to remember that we didn't anticipate this would happen, and we have been removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers."

Channel Ars Technica