Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) May Pay $22.50 million to Close Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Safari probe

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) May Pay $22.50 million to Close Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Safari probe

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is close to a settlement to pay $22.5 million in a probe over claims it violated user privacy on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Internet browser, as per a report from Bloomberg.

As per the report, the settlement is awaiting approval by FTC commissioners and could still be altered before it becomes public. The settlement would resolve an investigation over how Google used software that can follow user activities when they accessed the Safari browser. The company, which disabled the code in February, said the tracking didn’t cause any harm to consumers.

Google said in a statement that the FTC is focused on a 2009 help center page and the company have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies. The cookies allowed Google to bypass Safari’s built- in privacy protections to aim targeted advertising at users of Safari. The company said that it didn’t anticipate this would happen and was removing the files since discovering the slip.

As per the lawyers involved in the investigation, FTC investigated whether Google had violated a 20-year consent decree it signed last October with the FTC, in which it settled allegations it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy policies in introducing the Buzz social-networking service in 2010. The FTC rarely charges companies with violating consent decrees, and the penalty for violating the agreement is $16,000 per violation per day.

Once settled, the fine would be the largest penalty ever charged on a single company by the FTC.