Google has come under fire after it was revealed its search engines were bypassing privacy settings on Apple's web browser for iPhones and computers.

Jonathan Mayer, a Stanford University graduate student, said on Friday in a blog post that the US internet and software corporation was using a special code to monitor people's activities when they used Apple's Safari browser.

Regulators are now threatening to take action against the company.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher report from Washington.