Apple, Privacy Violation | featured news

Google Inc will pay $22.5 million to settle charges it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple Inc's Safari browser, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.

A hearing later this week will point the lens on Apple, Google, and Facebook's mobile privacy policies. This follows last week's hearing about the same topic.

After a week of silence, Apple on Wednesday responded to widespread complaints about iPhones and iPads tracking their users' whereabouts by saying "the iPhone is not logging your location" and announcing an upcoming mobile software update.

U.S. investigators plan to announce criminal charges concerning the alleged theft of email addresses and other personal information belonging to about 120,000 users of Apple Inc's iPad tablet computer.

A group of iPhone and iPad users have sued Apple Inc alleging that certain applications (apps) were passing personal user information to third-party advertisers without consent, a court filing showed.