GOOGLE HAS agreed to pay a record $22.5 million to settle allegations by the US Federal Trade Commission that it breached Apple’s Safari internet browser.

The fine, the largest the commission has levied against a company, represents the first by the agency for a violation of internet privacy.

The commission alleged Google deceived consumers and violated a consent decree signed with the commission last year when it planted so-called “cookies” on Safari, bypassing Apple software’s privacy settings, to track users’ browsing behaviour.

Google, operator of the world’s largest internet search engine, has drawn regulatory scrutiny and pressure from consumer advocates for how it handles personal information. Its consent decree with the commission settled allegations that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy policies in introducing the Buzz social-networking service in 2010.

Google said: “The is focused on a 2009 help centre page published more than two years before our consent decree, and a year before Apple changed its cookie-handling policy. We have now changed that page and taken steps to remove the ad cookies, which collected no personal information, from Apple’s browsers.”

The commission said it ordered Google to disable all the tracking cookies. Most of these have been removed and all must be gone by February 2014, James Kohn, the commission’s associate director for enforcement, said after the announcement. – (Bloomberg)