Connecticut will receive $535,312 as part of a $17 million settlement between web search giant Google and 36 other states, the state Attorney General and Department of Consumer Protection announced.
The settlement resolves allegations that Google circumvented privacy setting in Safari web browsers between June 2011 and February of last year.
State authorities alleged that Google had used its DoubleClick advertising platform to transmit third-party cookies to Safari users’ computers without their knowledge.
The alleged actions meant users thought their browsers were protecting them from sharing information with advertisers, when they actually were not.
The settlement prohibits Google from overriding cookie-blocking settings without consumer consent, unless it’s to prevent fraud or to address security or technical issues. Google will also provide information for the next five years about how it uses cookies.
