FTC answers Google settlement queries in robust social media chats. August 10, 2012 By Jedidiah Bracy, CIPP/E, CIPP/US Within hours of announcing that Google had agreed to pay a $22.5 million fine to settle charges it bypassed Apple Safari privacy settings, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took to social media to answer questions from varying sides of the privacy debate.
Through Twitter and Facebook, the FTC publicly answered questions from those interested in the largest civil penalty in the agency’s history. And not everyone supported the settlement. Some echoed concerns expressed by FTC Commissioner Thomas Rosch’s dissenting statement. “This scenario—violation of a consent order,” wrote Rosch, “makes the commission’s acceptance of Google’s denial of liability all the more inexplicable.” TechFreedom President Berin Szoka tweeted, “How can msg sent be ‘clear’ when there’s not admission of liability or explanation of violation or fine?”
One participant asked the FTC what impact the settlement may have on the web industry. Microsoft and Google in IE privacy fist. Microsoft left a big privacy loophole in its Internet Explorer browser and is now going after Google for driving a truck through it.
Microsoft said Google has been rolling over a privacy safeguard in its Internet Explorer 9 browser that helps users prevent advertisers from placing tracking files on their computers. Microsoft's allegations come a few days after the search giant took licks for appearing to circumvent privacy protections on Apple's Safari browser. "When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too?
" Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's vice president of Internet Explorer, wrote in a blog post. "We've discovered the answer is yes. " Hachamovitch goes on to detail a nuanced process that goes something like this: Advertisement. Google, Microsoft tangle over tracking, online privacy. Mudslinging between tech rivals is nothing new.
But the red hot issue of online privacy has pushed it to another level. Last week, Google scrambled to deflect criticism that it tracked the online activities of users' of Apple's Safari Web browser against their wishes, by circumventing an anti-tracking mechanism. Tuesday, Google lashed out at Microsoft in response to allegations that the search giant has been doing much the same to users of Windows Internet Explorer browser. Google and Facebook are under pressure from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to disclose more about their tracking techniques. MORE: Google facing Congressional backlash over tracking of Safari users Ironically, this latest tempest, stirred up by Microsoft, could widen the spotlight and invite scrutiny of Microsoft's own tracking practices, and those of Apple, Twitter, Amazon and thousands of Web companies in the hunt for online advertising revenue, says Al Hilwa, software applications analyst at IDC.
Données privées : Google réplique aux critiques de Microsoft. Après les critiques, et l’éloge de ses propres technologies, Microsoft est passé à l’offensive contre Google.
Quelques jours après la polémique suscitée par les pratiques de Google en matière de cookies sur les postes équipés de Safari, l’éditeur accuse la firme de Mountain View de contourner les paramètres de confidentialité d’Internet Explorer. Microsoft reproche ainsi à Google de ne pas respecter le protocole P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences). La critique ne passe pas auprès de Google, pour qui Microsoft joue surtout ici un double-jeu. Microsoft ne respecterait pas lui-même ses propres règles D’abord Google réplique en estimant que Microsoft a volontairement oublié de signaler d’importantes informations dans sa charge à son encontre. Microsoft: Google bypassed privacy settings in IE, too. A week after Microsoft criticized Google over bypassing user privacy settings on Apple's Safari, the Softies are admitting publicly that Google did the same with Internet Explorer (IE).
On February 17, Microsoft used Google's circumventing of certain privacy settings on iPhones, iPads and Macs as a reason to tout IE's superiority in terms of privacy protection. But on February 20, in a post to the IEBlog, Microsoft officials admitted that Google also skirted IE users' privacy settings, as well. Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President of IE, blogged: "Google is employing similar methods (to what it employed with Safari) to get around the default privacy protections in IE and track IE users with cookies. ...We’ve also contacted Google and asked them to commit to honoring P3P privacy settings for users of all browsers.
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