In her final ruling, Illston accepted the FTC's assertion that the settlement "sufficiently protects consumers from ongoing harm without exposing them to additional risks." She cited legal precedent compelling her to "pay deference" the government agency that negotiated and submitted a proposed settlement such as the Safari case. The FTC and Google spent more than two months working out the details of the settlement, Illston noted in her ruling.
Analyzing Web surfing data helps Google gain a better understanding of people's preferences so it can customize online ads to appeal to different tastes.
But Google lawyer David Kramer told Illston that the data gathered from Safari browsers during the period covered by the settlement would be too stale to be of practical use to the company's advertising network. He also maintained that much of the data transmitted to Google would have been sent even without the unauthorized insertion of additional computer coding.
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