[Steko]

Am I mistaken or did the FTC not just fine Google $22.5 million over the exact same behavior for a considerably smaller share of web users.

If I'm Microsoft I am making a very public appeal to the FTC over this Monday morning. $22.5 million is a lot more money to Y! than Google. And as wary as consumers are of Microsoft long term they've got to degrade the Google/Firefox brand to start gaining any traction. Why not go full bore on tracking/creepiness?

[csoghoian]

The FTC reached a settlement with Google this year for a $22 mil fine because Google violated a previous consent order over Buzz.

Yahoo is not under an existing consent order with the FTC. For the most part, the FTC does not get fines unless a company violates an existing consent order.

Furthermore, Google didn't get fined because it circumvented Safari's privacy settings, but rather, because it lied about the extent to which users could opt out of tracking.

I've not seen anything that suggests that Yahoo is lying about the extent to which they will respect or ignore the DNT header.

The FTC's deception powers aren't going to be of much use against Yahoo here.

(Disclosure: I worked at the FTC between 2009-2010, and worked on the investigations of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter).