FTC fines Google $22.5 million for ignoring Safari browser privacy settings

Apple’s Safari browser allows users to set a no tracking with regard to their search choices and preferences. According to the Daily Mail, Google used cookies to disable the do not track setting, allowing it to track user searches via iPhone and other platforms that use Safari.

The FTC intervened:

Google Inc is reportedly close to paying $22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple’s Safari browser.

The staggering sum would be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Of course, as the story notes, Google brought in a net income of $2.89 billion just during the first quarter of this year, thus the penalty is a drop in the bucket and it is fairly likely that Google brought far more in revenues from its scheme than it is paying in penalties…