Google To Get Grilling Before UK Courts For Covert Safari Browser Tracking

High Court Judge Mr Justice Michael Tugendhat has declared in the case Vidal-Hall & Ors v Google Inc. [2014] EWHC 13 (QB) (16 January 2014) that infamous U.S. corporation Google Inc. ('Google') will face the scrutiny of the UK courts in a privacy claim brought by three British Internet users (the 'Claimants'), who have started a group known as the 'Safari Users Against Google's Secret Tracking' (the 'Claimants').

By way of background since the summer 2011, all versions of the Safari browser installed on Apple Inc. ('Apple') devices have been set by default to block third-party cookies to prevent advertising-related tracking. The Claimants allege that between September 2011 and February 2012, Google circumvented Apple's default Safari settings to place covert tracking cookies, specifically the DoubleClick ID cookie, on their devices. This allowed Google to unlawfully monitor their online browsing activities, referred to as the 'Safari Workaround', for the purposes of