Report: Google To Pay Massive $22.5 Million “Cookiegate” Fine

The Wall Street Journal reports Google and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to announce the terms of ‘Cookiegate’ fine. This fine is due to Google bypassing the default privacy settings in Apple’s Safari web browser. The Wall Street Journal says they expect the fine to be the “largest penalty ever levied on a […]

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google-legal-lawThe Wall Street Journal reports Google and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to announce the terms of ‘Cookiegate’ fine. This fine is due to Google bypassing the default privacy settings in Apple’s Safari web browser.

The Wall Street Journal says they expect the fine to be the “largest penalty ever levied on a single company” by the FTC. The amount is a whopping $22.5 million according to sources. For Google, $22.5 million is not much but for their reputation, it just tacks on one more dent to their “do no evil” reputation.

The penalty is $16,000 per violation per day, adding up to the $22.5 million.

Google said in a statement, “The FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page… We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies,” referring to the small computer files that can enable tracking of people’s online activities.

An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment.

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About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on her personal site.

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