`Google secretly tracked user behavior on Apple Web browser`

Google is found to have secretly gathered user habits through Safari, the primary Web browser on Apple’s iPhone and iPad. This will likely provoke controversy over privacy infringement in Korea by Google’s comprehensive private data management policy.

According to the IT industry and foreign media Sunday, the world’s biggest Internet search company has traced and collected user information on homepage visits by installing a program on Safari. The Apple Web browser is configured to block third-party cookies by default, but Google has stealthily tracked user behavior via a program disguised as advertising.

Google has also planted the tracking program on 23 of the top 100 Web sites in the U.S. in user traffic. With criticism mounting, Google immediately deleted the program and denied collecting private information.

As of last year, 156 million devices embedded with Safari, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod, had been sold.

The U.S. Congress asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Friday to investigate Google’s action. Congressmen say the incident can be a violation of an agreement signed last year between the regulator and the company on privacy protection.

kyu@donga.com witness@donga.com