Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) used loopholes to sidestep privacy preferences in Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) Safari web browser, making it possible for the search giant to place tracking cookies for its advertisements in Safari despite the browser's default behavior of blocking third-party cookies.

In a blog entry posted Feb. 20, Internet Explorer executive Dean Hachamovitch wrote, "When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too?" It appears the answer is yes, but through a different method.

Hachamovitch writes: "Technically, Google utilizes a nuance in the P3P specification that has the effect of bypassing user preferences about cookies. The P3P specification (in an attempt to leave room for future advances in privacy policies) states that browsers should ignore any undefined policies they encounter. Google sends a P3P policy that fails to inform the browser about Google's use of cookies and user information. Google's P3P policy is actually a statement that it is not a P3P policy." In a nutshell, Google sends a bogus P3P policy that results in third-party cookies being allowed.

In response, Google countered that Microsoft is backing a system that is dated as well as impractical. Rachel Whetstone, senior vice president of communications and policy for Google, argued in a statement to CNET that "it is well known--including by Microsoft--that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft's request while providing modern Web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other Web sites."

I think the evidence speaks for itself. One interesting recommendation given by Whetstone is to block all tracking cookies from a specific domain, such as *.google.com. Would you consider adopting this approach?

For more:
- check out this article at Network World
- check out this article at CNET News

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