This February, Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer published a study that found that Google and three other companies, Vibrant Media Inc., WPP PLC’s Media Innovation Group LLC and Gannett Co.’s PointRoll Inc., were circumventing Apple’s Safari browser’s privacy setting and placing unwanted ad tracking cookies on unsuspecting users computers. The Wall Street Journal did their own independent confirmation of the Stanford research that “found that ads on 22 of the top 100 websites installed the Google tracking code on a test computer, and ads on 23 sites installed it on an iPhone browser.” On the basis of the report, the FTC opened its investigation.
Read the full story at the original publication link below.
- Date Published:05/05/2012
- Original Publication:Forbes