$17 Million Settlement With Google Over Tracking of Consumers ⇥ ag.ny.gov

From the office of New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman:

The Attorneys General allege that Google’s circumvention of Safari’s default privacy settings for blocking third-party cookies violates state consumer protection and related computer privacy laws. The States claim that Google failed to inform Safari users that it was circumventing their privacy settings and that Google’s earlier representation that third-party cookies were blocked for Safari users was misleading. In order to resolve these allegations, Google has agreed to pay the Attorneys General $17 million…

Google earned $10.7 billion in FY 2012 (income, not revenue), while the median US household income for 2012 was $51,000. That’s the scaled equivalent of an $81 fine.

It’s the thought that counts.