A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Google by consumers who claim the company violated privacy laws. In February 2012, researchers found that Google had bypassed the privacy settings of Apple’s Safari browser and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser in order to install cookies on PCs and smartphones.
Consumers sued, saying that despite taking steps to prevent cookies from being installed on their machines, Google did so anyway and served them targeted ads. The judge overseeing the case said it was clear that Google circumvented the privacy settings of Safari and IE, but that the plaintiffs were unable to prove they had been harmed.
Google was fined $22.5 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last year for its transgression.
