UK: Google faces legal action over alleged secret iPhone tracking

Google is facing a fresh privacy battle in the UK over its alleged secret tracking of the internet habits of millions of iPhone users.

An estimated 10 million Britons could have grounds to launch a privacy claim over the way Google circumvented Apple's security settings on the iPhone, iPad and desktop versions of its Safari web browser to monitor their behaviour.

The legal action comes just months after Google was hit with a $22.5m (£14m) fine in the US over a privacy breach between summer 2011 and spring 2012.

Google has admitted it intentionally sidestepped security settings on Apple's Safari web browser that blocked websites from tracking users through cookies – data stored on users' computers that show which sites they have visited. Security researchers revealed last February that Google's DoubleClick advertising network intentionally stored these cookies on users' computers without their consent.

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