The legally binding Student Privacy Pledge, signed by more than 75 other companies including Apple Inc. The data collection is not used for advertising purposes, according to a complaint submitted by EFF to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday (1 December), instead it is used “to improve Google products”.
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The digital rights group also contends Google’s storage and analysis of the student profile violates a “Student Privacy Pledge” that the company signed previous year. The acquisition of students’ personal data by gaining access to Google-for-student accounts and using the information for its own gain. It read, “Our services enable students everywhere to learn and keep their information private and secure”.
That’s worrying because it means that students are unwittingly handing over information about all their online activity to Google, including their browsing history and searches on their home computers and mobile devices.
The complaint deals with Google for Education, which provides laptops and a suite of educational and class-management tools for schools. It wants the FTC to investigate, force Google to destroy the student data it’s collected, and bar it from collecting any more.
Google did acknowledge the setting the EFF refers to on their Chromebooks is enabled by default and is taking measures to deactivate them.
Google is understood to be in the process of disabling some of the features the form part of the EFF’s complaint, including Google’s Chrome Sync for Chromebooks that records browsing behaviour.
Google has become the target of a complaint brought forth by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “In light of the Pledge, Google’s unauthorized collection, maintenance, use and sharing of student personal information beyond what is needed for education, constitutes unfair or deceptive acts or practices in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act”, the foundation said.
EFF Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo said, “Minors shouldn’t be tracked or used as guinea pigs, with their data treated as a profit center”.
EFF said that when it examined Google’s Chromebook and its applications, it found numerous ways in which student personal information was being collected and used by the company for its own benefit.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day.
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The EFF has since released a guide for parents and students on changing chromebook settings to improve privacy, while Google has disputed the charges, saying it has not done anything wrong. “It’s great to see technology embraced in the classroom, but some of these devices can jeopardize students’ privacy as they navigate the Internet – including children under the age of 13”, the site noted in a frequently asked questions page about the new program.
