Google threatened with legal action for breaching iPhone privacy with cookies
A group of disgruntled iPhone users have got together to bring legal action against search engine giant Google for allegedly breaching their privacy.
The Apple fans are angry that Google broke privacy rules by avoiding cookie restrictions in the Safari web browser.
The firm has admitted that it ignored a security setting in Safari which was meant to prevent tracking cookies from being stored, placing cookies for its Doubleclick ad network on systems without permission so it could track their movements around the web.
And it doesn’t just affect the iPhone: Safari is also used on the iPad and Apple Mac desktop and laptop computers.
The breach was revealed early last year by researchers and landed the big G with a $22.5m fine from the US government.
Now it’s facing what could potentially be a much larger bill. Solicitor Dan Tench of law firm Olswang is leading an action involving 10 iPhone users, but many more are keen to join in with taking Google to task. Due to the number of iPhone and Apple Mac users throughout the UK the final cost to Google could run to many millions.
Google executives in the US and UK have been notified, and solicitors have asked Google to provide information on what data was gathered and for how long, and how it was used.
This is only the latest in a long series of legal troubles for Google involving breaches of privacy. Most notoriously it was caught recording the details of Wi-Fi networks with Street View cars, something which is still being investigated in the UK and other countries.
