The record $22.5 million fine that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) imposed on Internet search giant Google in August - for settling the charges that Google unlawfully sidestepped the user privacy settings in the Apple Safari Web browser - was approved US District Judge Susan Illston on Friday.

The FTC-Google settlement agreement - underscoring the highest-ever penalty which FTC has imposed against any single firm - came after Google was charged with the accusation that it had "placed an advertising tracking cookie on the computers of Safari users who visited sites within Google's DoubleClick advertising network."

According to the allegations which FTC had leveled against Google, the company had contradicted a 2011 privacy contract it had made with the agency with regard to the opting the users out of tracking automatically, due to handling of third-party cookies by the Safari browser.

Meanwhile, even though a consumer-rights group - Consumer Watchdog - was demanding a stricter penalty against Google for the company's alleged privacy breach, Judge Illston's approval of the $22.5 million penalty came within a few hours of a hearing of final arguments in San Francisco.

Despite the fact that Consumer Watchdog has been asserting that the fine FTC had imposed against Google was not a tough enough punishment in the direction of protection of public interest, Judge Illston said in the ruling that the $22.5 million penalty and other aspects of the FTC-Google settlement were all "fair, adequate and reasonable."