A group of Apple (AAPL) users in the United Kingdom are looking to take legal action against Google (GOOG) for its role in last year’s Safari tracking scandal. The group, known as Safari Users Against Google’s Secret Tracking, has instructed a law firm to coordinate the claims against Google and is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages and a public apology from the company.
“Google has a responsibility to consumers and should be accountable for the trust placed in them,” said Dan Tench, a partner at Olswang, the law firm representing the group. “We hope that they will take this opportunity to give Safari users a proper explanation about what happened, to apologise and, where appropriate, compensate the victims of their intrusion.”
It was discovered in early 2012 that the company was bypassing the privacy settings on the Safari Web browser to install unwanted third-party tracking cookies without users’ permission. Google ultimately settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $22.5 million and avoided a full-blown investigation by authorities in the United States.
