Microsoft: Google breached your privacy; use Bing

"Apply cold water to burned area."

Microsoft is taking advantage of Google's own "do no evil" policy after the search giant was found tracking Safari users in order to display advertisements even when they should have been blocked. Microsoft fired back on all cylinders with a scathing marketing campaign.

Safari users are now directed to a page which outlines how Google was given a $22.5 million penalty by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission earlier this year. The page focuses on Google's recent controversy with tracking users and capitalizes on it by pointing users to boycott Google in favor of Microsoft's own Bing search engine, as Microsoft clearly wants the privacy-infringing saga to remain at the front of people's minds when they use the search engine.

The page reads:

"If you are a Safari user, Google may have recently tracked you even though it promised it would not. Want to do something about it? Stop searching with Google and start searching with Bing."

To add insult to injury, clicking the button points to "google record ftc fine" as a search query.

Google was uncovered bypassing the privacy settings of Safari users, including on desktop Macs and iOS devices, such as iPhones and iPads, to place tracking cookies on the devices, even though the settings should have prevented such activity. 

Despite the record penalty handed down by the FTC, Google would have recouped that $22.5 million fine in just five hours, according to figures based on the search giant's last quarterly results. 

After the debacle, Google set up its own "privacy red team" in order to shine a bright light on the company's products in a bid to prevent such a controversy sparking again.