Google to pay USD 22.5m to settle privacy charges: source

Google Inc is close to settling charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple Inc's Safari browser, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Google will pay USD 22.5m to settle the matter, said one of the sources, who spoke privately to protect relationships. The fine would be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal which reported the potential settlement late on Monday. The charges involve the use of special computer code, or "cookies," to trick Apple's Safari browser so Google could monitor users who had blocked such tracking. Google disabled the code after being contacted by the Journal. Google has said the tracking was inadvertent and that no personal information such as names, addresses or credit card data was collected. But the tracking was done despite assurances that Safari could be set to protect users' privacy and prompted an FTC probe into whether Google violated a consent decree signed last year. Google said then it would not misrepresent its privacy policies.

European ruling on Google privacy policy set for September

France's data protection watchdog said it will likely wrap up the inquiry of Google's new privacy policy, which it is conducting on behalf of European regulators, in September. France's Commission Nationale de l'Informatique (CNIL) had expected to decide in June whether Google's new approach to privacy that took effect in March conforms with European law, but the process has been slowed as the company provided more information to the regulator. The CNIL will then draw its conclusions and present them to the wider group of data protection regulators of the 27 European Union member states, known as the G29. Under its new approach, Google consolidated 60 privacy policies into one and completed its ability to pool the data collected on users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and its social network Google+. The Mountain View, California-based search giant says this allows it to better tailor search results and improve services for consumers. Users are not allowed to opt out. The CNIL review could lead to financial penalties of up to 300,000 euros or administrative sanctions for the U.S. search giant, but it is not clear whether they would be imposed collectively or if individual states would seek their own fines.