Google has increasingly been under due to privacy issues. The search engine has pepped up it’s efforts to try and track the browsing habits as well as other information of the users. The recent privacy changes in Google’s account has been bitterly criticized. As if that wasn’t enough, it has now been revealed that Google has been tracking the browsing of Safari users by circumventing the privacy settings of Safari. This is another unethical practice by Google.
Safari browsers, by default, are able to block third party cookies and do not let them be installed on the browser. When Google announced it’s new settings, it assured the users of Safari that they didn’t need to opt out of the new changes because their browser, by default, won’t let Google track their browsing.
And this was true until Google was able to circumvent Safari privacy settings through a small bit of code of it’s own. Of course the users of Safari didn’t know about it and Google, without the knowledge of these users, was able to track the browsing of the users. It was finally revealed by Wall Street Journal and confirmed by tech experts.
All the user has to do is interact with one of Google-placed ads. Once user does that, the cookie is installed on the browser. After that, Google is then able to track a major part of the user’s browsing activity. Although the cookie is temporary and expires after a day or two, this initial cookie then enables Google to install further cookies and keep tabs on the users’ activity online.
Ever since WSJ made this public and Google’s attempt to circumvent the privacy settings of Safari have become known, Google has removed the bit of code that enabled it to do all of this.
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