Google has secretly been bypassing your privacy settings in Internet Explorer, Microsoft claimed Monday afternoon.
The startling accusation came in a blog post Monday by Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Internet Explorer. On Friday, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the search and advertising giant was bypassing the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple Safari browsers on iPhones and desktop computers.
Google had been using special computer code to trick Apple's Safari Web browser software into letting the company monitor users -- tracking Safari is designed to block by default. When contacted by the Wall Street Journal, Google disabled the code and told Fox News the Journal was distorting its findings.
"The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why,” a Google spokesman told Fox News. “We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It's important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information."