Close on the heels of the last-week revelation that Internet search giant Google, as well as three other ad networks, had circumvented the privacy settings on Apple's Safari browser for the purpose of tracking unsolicited usage on the iPhone and the Mac, Microsoft has alleged that Google `tricks' its Internet Explorer (IE) browser into accepting usage-tracking cookies.

Microsoft's plunge into the Google `Safari tracking' controversy came via a blog post titled "Google bypassing user privacy settings," in which Dean Hachamovitch - Corporate VP for Microsoft IE - said that the software maker, on hearing about Google's bypass of Safari users' privacy settings, conducted a check of the Google mechanism and found that the search biggie side-stepped the default privacy protections in IE and tracked users with cookies.

Hachamovitch elaborated that third-party cookies can be effectively blocked by the default configuration of IE unless it is presented with a "Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) Compact Policy Statement" which essentially indicates that cookies will not be used by a site to track the users.

Accusing Google of sending a series of text which hoodwinks the IE into thinking the cookie will not be used for tracking users, Microsoft said: "By sending this text, Google bypasses the cookie protection and enables its third-party cookies to be allowed rather than blocked."

However, to prevent the tracking of IE users, Microsoft has updated the IE9's Tracking Protection Lists; and has also contacted Google to ask the search giant to make a commitment for "honoring P3P privacy settings for users of all browsers."