Google, Others Using Workarounds to Evade Browser Privacy Settings is Unacceptable

Washington, DC — The Center for Democracy & Technology issued the following statement on the Jonathan Mayer study regarding the efforts of Google and others to avoid third-party blocking in Apple’s Safari browser:

“CDT believes technological workarounds to evade browser privacy settings are unacceptable,” said Justin Brookman, CDT’s Director of Consumer Privacy.  “We are severely disappointed that Google and others choose to place  tracking cookies on Safari browsers using invisible form submission.  While we take Google’s assertion at face value that it was not their intent to track users in this way, we are perplexed how this decision evaded Google’s internal design and review process.  After several recent missteps–and two new reboots on privacy-by-design–this should never have happened.”