Privacy: Google pays $ 22.5 million fine

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Thursday an agreement with the internet group Google, who will pay a fine of 22.5 million to settle lawsuits related to the monitoring of users of Apple's web browser, Safari. On the scale of Google, which last month published a quarterly profit of $ 2.8 billion, this is a modest penalty, but the FTC said it represented in what concerns the amount record. According to the FTC, Google had hinted to users, wrongly, that it would install no "cookies", small spyware, or do not present their targeted advertising. The Wall Street Journal said in February that Google and other advertising companies were using special programming codes, hidden commands in Safari, to monitor and record the Internet surfing habits of users of the software, bypassing the preferences users who had enabled a feature to block "cookies". "In addition to the civil penalty, the decision (the FTC) also requires that Google will disable all cookies it would not install on the computers of Internet users," said the government agency, which noted that it began its investigation well before actual news reports. "Whether big or small, all companies must respect the decisions of the FTC and keep promises of confidentiality made to consumers, or they will end up paying much more than what would have cost compliance" with rules, commented the FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. The FTC said the agreement did not mean recognition of his wrongs by Google - a requirement "that we bring anything from a legal standpoint," argued one of its officials in a teleconference. In a statement, the California group noted that "the FTC focused on a help page for 2009, published more than two years before (the commitments made by Google in terms of confidentiality), and a year before Apple changes its policy on cookies. " "We edit and taken steps to remove browser cookies Apple ads, which did not contain personal information," added Google. This is not, far from it, the first time that Google is pinned on the topic of confidentiality, leading some to question the sincerity of its commitment to respecting the privacy of its users. "For us, it is disturbing that Google says he did not know," said the director of the office of consumer protection at the FTC, David Vladeck. "As a regulator, it is difficult to know which is worse for an answer, ¨ I did not know + +, or + I + deliberately," he added. Referring to the controversy caused by the interception of private data by cars participating in the Google Maps service, Mr. Vladeck noted: "the answer for Street View was + we do not realize what was happening + Here the answer is + + was not known. But a company like Google that stores personal information of hundreds of millions of people must do better, "he said. The FTC also noted that the fine was not intended to sanction the collection of data in itself, but the information provided to users who have been misled. James Kohm, responsible for the investigation of the FTC, said Google had until February 2014 to delete all cookies in question, the time for all sites hosting the software is visited by Internet users.