Google Agrees to Pay State $357,000 to Settle Claims

By Liz Taurasi

Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Monday Google has agreed to pay more than $357,000 to the state to settle claims the company misled Safari web browser users that its default settings would block Google from placing third-party advertising cookies.

Massachusetts is one of 37 states involved in the settlement. 

According to the statement from Coakley’s office, Google is alleged to have circumvented the default settings to place cookies on Safari users’ computers without their knowledge or consent violating consumer protection laws. 

“Consumers have the right to make informed decisions with respect to their privacy online, and those choices should be respected,” Coakley said.  “As a result of this settlement, consumers will be able to exercise more meaningful control over how Google sends advertisements to them while online.”

Google has agreed to pay a total of $17 million and and to do the following to resolve these allegations, according to the statement from the AG's office: 

• Not deploy the type of code used to override a browser’s cookie blocking settings without the consumer’s consent unless it is necessary to do so in order to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues;