구글이 지난 18일 애플 정보보기기의 인터넷 접속이력(쿠키)를 이용자 동의없이 수집해 개인정보를 위반한 혐의로 1천700만달러(180억원가량)의 벌금을 물기로 합의했다.
에릭 슈나이더만 뉴욕주 검찰총장은 "구글이 2011년에서 2012년 사이 애플의 웹브라우저 사파리의 인터넷 접속 이력을 추적, 이용자의 화면에 광고가 뜨게 하는 등 개인정보 보호 규정을 위반한 혐의로 1천700만달러에 달하는 벌금을 내기로 합의했다"고 밝혔다.
35개주와 워싱턴DC에서 발생한 구글의 개인정보 보호 위반에 따른 이번 벌금 이전에도 구글은 지난해 11월 같은 문제로 2천250만달러(245억원가량)의 벌금을 낸 바 있다. 당시 미국 소비자보호기구인 연방거래위원회(FTC)는 구글과의 분쟁 조정절차를 거쳐 법원이 정한 금액과 같은 규모의 벌금을 물리기로 하였다.
FTC가 단일 회사에 부과한 벌금으로는 사상 최대 규모다.
애플은 사파리 접속 이력에 대한 외부업체의 접근을 차단하고 있음에도 불구하고 구글은 2011년부터 2년간 이용자 동의없이 이를 수집했던 것으로 알려졌다.
(윤하연 인턴기자 / 코리아헤럴드)
<관련 영문 기사>
Google to pay $17M to settle Safari privacy case
SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is paying $17 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia to make amends for the Internet search leader's snooping on millions of people using Safari Web browsers in 2011 and 2012.
The settlement announced Monday stems from a technological loophole that enabled Google's DoubleClick advertising network to shadow unwitting Safari users, even though the browser's maker, Apple Inc., prohibited the tracking without obtaining a person's permission. By following what Safari users were doing online, DoubleClick could gain more insights about what types of ads were most likely to appeal to different Safari users.
This is the second time that authorities in the U.S. have cracked down on Google for its secret shadowing of Safari users from June 2011 through mid-February of last year. The Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5 million last year. It represented the largest penalty that the FTC had ever collected for a civil violation.
Google Inc. has maintained the Safari intrusion was an inadvertent side effect of an attempt to make it easier for people to recommend ads.
The Mountain View, California company disabled the surveillance coding, known as ``cookies,'' in February 2012 after the violation of Safari's privacy policies was initially reported. Until the problem was uncovered by a graduate student at Stanford University, Google had assured Safari users that they wouldn't be monitored, as long as they didn't change the browser settings to permit the tracking.
``Misrepresenting that tracking will not occur, when that is not the case, is unacceptable, as this settlement emphasizes,'' Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said.
Google isn't acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement. That's the same position that Google took when it paid the FTC fine last year.
``We work hard to get privacy right at Google and have taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple's browsers,'' the company said in a Monday statement. ``We're pleased to have worked with the state attorneys general to reach this agreement.''
The settlement will be divided among the participating states and the District of Columbia.
The rebuke from the states is primarily a public relations blow to Google, whose privacy controls have suffered other lapses in recent years. In perhaps the most glaring privacy breach, a Google engineer installed a program that enabled company cars taking pictures of street scenes to scoop up personal data being transmitted over unprotected Wi-Fi networks. The company also exposed the contact lists of Gmail users in 2010 when it launched a now-defunct social networking service called Buzz.
The settlement won't put much of a dent in Google's finances. After stripping out the company's advertising commissions, Google's revenue this year is expected to be about $47 billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet. According to that estimate, it would take Google slightly more than three hours to generate $17 million in revenue on an average day.
Besides paying the fine, Google also is agreeing to maintain a special page devoted to cookies for the next five years and refrain making any misleading statements about its online tracking practices. (AP)
