Google Education Spies on Children via Free Chrombook software "Google for Education" New Mexico Lawsuit Alleges

[WillyW]

This topic was from a week ago, I was having technical difficulties.

But in a CBS news piece the New Mexico attorney general states:

 

Quote

Google uses its dominance in schools to "spy" on millions of future customers, tracking the digital lives of kids as early as kindergarten, a lawsuit filed by New Mexico's attorney general alleges.

The lawsuit details how Google used free chromebooks to spy on the behaviour of children through the Google for Education program.

 

The AG is Hector Balderas, the same one who took on Google for the COPPA controversy.

Quote

It’s not Balderas’ first time taking on Google. In 2018, Balderas filed a lawsuit against Google and other companies for violating child privacy laws, specifically the far-reaching COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) provisions. That suit is separate from this new Chromebook-related one and is still ongoing, according to court filings.

 

The verge (I know) summarizes the information that was being collected as follows:

Quote

The data the suit accuses Google of collecting includes sensitive information like physical locations, web and search histories, YouTube viewing habits, contact lists, passwords, and voice recordings, the complaint says. The suit also claims Google used this information to serve its advertising business up until April 2014, and that the company has stored this data in personalized profiles for each student that participates in its G Suite for Education program. It also accuses of Google of not properly disclosing this data collection and not giving parents a way to view and limit the data collection.

 

This is another reason why properly funding schools is much better than receiving handouts from corporations who always expect something in return for the 'gifts'. It is much better for schools to build their own PCs and acquire their own software. So make sure to donate your old tech to your local PC for schools charity!

 

Here are the article sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/google-education-spies-on-collects-data-on-millions-of-kids-alleges-lawsuit-new-mexico-attorney-general/

 

In this source you can find the actual suit filed:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/20/21145698/google-student-privacy-lawsuit-education-schools-chromebooks-new-mexico-balderas

Edited February 28, 2020 by WillyW
Added context to title

[Doobeedoo]

Google loves children. 

[RejZoR]

What's most bizarre is how Google can keep on doing this shit and everyone is just fine with it. Same as Facebook. Doing all this and constant fuckups with privacy and yet everyone keeps using them. Imagine anyone else having such poor privacy and constantly doing so many screwups and still being so profitable and even expanding.

[ARikozuM]

6 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

So whats the point of the lawsuit?

To get money and then Google just continues doing the bad things?

It sets a precedent that can then be used to create further legislation. I really hope this wins and law becomes that you can't track anyone's info. Google can simply go sub model and open the market for smaller companies to create a better system. 

[rawrdaysgoby]

They sell the school them devices at dirt cheap prices. They take data in return. What do anyone expects these days

[Killing-time-itself]

Isnt this illegal due to coppa?

 

Atleast in america.

[divito]

On 2/28/2020 at 10:10 AM, RejZoR said:

What's most bizarre is how Google can keep on doing this shit and everyone is just fine with it. Same as Facebook. Doing all this and constant fuckups with privacy and yet everyone keeps using them. Imagine anyone else having such poor privacy and constantly doing so many screwups and still being so profitable and even expanding.

It's not bizarre that people don't want to spend money.

[RejZoR]

31 minutes ago, divito said:

It's not bizarre that people don't want to spend money.

It's bizarre they don't want to spend it at any cost. They value their privacy at ZERO.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 2/28/2020 at 12:10 PM, RejZoR said:

Imagine anyone else having such poor privacy and constantly doing so many screwups and still being so profitable and even expanding.

Equifax? Almost every android app?

[CTR640]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:10 PM, RejZoR said:

What's most bizarre is how Google can keep on doing this shit and everyone is just fine with it. Same as Facebook. Doing all this and constant fuckups with privacy and yet everyone keeps using them. Imagine anyone else having such poor privacy and constantly doing so many screwups and still being so profitable and even expanding.

Exactly that. That's why I dislike Whatscrapp and refuse to use it. I disappointed people because of that and have been made fun of that but fuck it, I don't care. I truely don't understand why people continue using that shit and keep having their privacy invaded continuesly. I guess brainwashed?

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

It's bizarre they don't want to spend it at any cost. They value their privacy at ZERO.

I think alot of people have sorta given up on trying to protect their privacy. To be fair it's much more difficult to protect your privacy to the point where alot of normal people are going to just give up and concede to the fact that privacy is basically nonexistent in the modern world. I mean google maps tracks where you go but am I going to stop using it for privacy reasons? Hell no because Google maps is just way to useful and important in my everyday life. 

[kpluck]

Quote

These claims are factually wrong. G Suite for Education allows schools to control account access and requires that schools obtain parental consent when necessary. We do not use personal information from users in primary and secondary schools to target ads. School districts can decide how best to use Google for Education in their classrooms and we are committed to partnering with them.

 

So Google denies the claims. Of course, we all know that is BS. Corporations are evil and politicians looking for money are our saviours.

 

-kp

[straight_stewie]

On 2/28/2020 at 8:51 AM, WillyW said:

The verge (I know)

The Verges summary is kind of vague, and even a little nonsensical for certain points:

• Google saves childrens passwords
  • It's 100% common sense that they save the hash of all passwords used to access Alphabet Inc. products. That's kind of how passwords work.
  • Or they could be vaguely alleging that Google is sniffing all passwords.
• Youtube Viewing Habits
  • Again. 100% common sense. How do people think that youtube knows to suggest videos that are similar to other videos that you watch? That's a feature of Youtube, not a privacy violation. This point is just nonsensical fear mongering.
• Contact Lists
  • This one is just vague. Of course Google saves your Alphabet Inc. accounts contact lists, such as people you've emailed through Gmail or people you've collaborated with on G-Suite. That's one of the features of that software.
  • On the other hand, they might be vaguely alleging that Google accesses third party contact lists without the knowledge or consent of users.

I'm all for talking about privacy violations and how modern technology is well on it's way to being used as a tool for massive world scale oppression. But this is the problem about discussing this stuff: You have to be extremely specific when you make claims of wrongdoing in these areas, otherwise the allegations are easily defended against.

 

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

I think alot of people have sorta given up on trying to protect their privacy. To be fair it's much more difficult to protect your privacy to the point where alot of normal people are going to just give up and concede to the fact that privacy is basically nonexistent in the modern world. I mean google maps tracks where you go but am I going to stop using it for privacy reasons? Hell no because Google maps is just way to useful and important in my everyday life. 

Here WeGo is just better. And respects privacy more. In fact I was often directed correctly with it and people using Google Maps were doing circles way off because the thing just couldn't navigate them right.

[Engineer.AI]

On 2/28/2020 at 8:40 PM, RejZoR said:

What's most bizarre is how Google can keep on doing this shit and everyone is just fine with it. Same as Facebook. Doing all this and constant fuckups with privacy and yet everyone keeps using them. Imagine anyone else having such poor privacy and constantly doing so many screwups and still being so profitable and even expanding.

Firstly, I dont really think that 90% of the people are aware of data breaches, and the threat to their privacy - basically looming over their heads 24/7. Infact, even if you tell them, they dont understand the implications of leaking even something like your email ID, or child's name/phone number to a third party individual (it's not that they dont care, it's just naivete - being innocent of the extremes that some miscreants can bring them to). 

Also, the ones in power, who should be combating them, are rarely ever charged up over this, as opposed to people like you and me.

10 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

I think alot of people have sorta given up on trying to protect their privacy. To be fair it's much more difficult to protect your privacy to the point where alot of normal people are going to just give up and concede to the fact that privacy is basically nonexistent in the modern world. I mean google maps tracks where you go but am I going to stop using it for privacy reasons? Hell no because Google maps is just way to useful and important in my everyday life. 

This response really puts a pin down on the issue. The companies who spy on you, are literally the ones running the economy right now. How are you going to fight the Big Brother, when ALL YOU GOT is the Big Brother?!

~Engineer.AI

[SpaceGhostC2C]

20 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

• Youtube Viewing Habits
  • Again. 100% common sense. How do people think that youtube knows to suggest videos that are similar to other videos that you watch? That's a feature of Youtube, not a privacy violation. This point is just nonsensical fear mongering

You are wrong - in fact, it certain countries it is illegal to collect such data, and therefore be able to make targeted suggestions at all, when it comes from people under certain age. So that would be a privacy violation.

Gambling is a feature of online casinos, that doesn't mean they can let children in.

The same applies to some other parts of your "it's a feature" rant. You missed the point entirely.

 

[divito]

On 3/6/2020 at 12:06 PM, SpaceGhostC2C said:

You are wrong - in fact, it certain countries it is illegal to collect such data, and therefore be able to make targeted suggestions at all, when it comes from people under certain age. So that would be a privacy violation.

Gambling is a feature of online casinos, that doesn't mean they can let children in.

The same applies to some other parts of your "it's a feature" rant. You missed the point entirely.

 

It may be illegal in certain countries, but Youtube as a platform for users and for creators would not be where it is today if it wasn't able to show relevant videos that may be of interest to viewers. People make inferences everyday about people based on their appearance, job, material possessions and hobbies. Just because it's a digital platform that records that information, rather than a shop owner recognizing a customer and remembering their previous order and interests, or a waitress recognizing a regular and streamlining their service, doesn't make it a privacy violation.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 3/13/2020 at 11:34 PM, divito said:

It may be illegal in certain countries, but Youtube as a platform for users and for creators would not be where it is today if it wasn't able to show relevant videos that may be of interest to viewers. 

Frankly, I couldn't  care less.

 

Services that couldn't "be where they are" under sane regulation maybe just shouldn't "be where they are" at all.

[ravenshrike]

On 3/6/2020 at 11:06 AM, SpaceGhostC2C said:

You are wrong - in fact, it certain countries it is illegal to collect such data, and therefore be able to make targeted suggestions at all, when it comes from people under certain age. So that would be a privacy violation.

 

 

Given that parental consent is obtained barring the schools not doing so when I imagine they are contractually obligated to, does that still apply?