How Google Tracked Your iPhone

For a company already fighting a negative image as a privacy shark, the news today that Google has tracked iPhones users' Web-browsing habits certainly isn't going to to do the Google any good.

For a company already fighting a negative image as a privacy shark, the news today that Google has tracked iPhones users' Web-browsing habits certainly isn't going to to do the search giant any good.The Wall Street Journal reports that Google used a code on Apple's Safari browser for iOS that allowed them to track users even though many had opted for Apple's browser in order to block Google's ads. "Until recently, one Google site told Safari users they could rely on Safari's privacy settings to prevent tracking by Google," The Journal's Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-Devries wrote. "Google removed that language from the site Tuesday night."

This is just another confirmation that it's getting harder for smart phone users to trust tech companies. Today's Google news follows the furor over social media platform's Path's unapproved collection of iPhone contact lists and last year's location-based iPhone tracking. Google, on the defensive, removed the code when The Journal contacted them but said that The Journal  "mischaracterizes what happened."