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Google Accused of Tracking School Kids After Promising Not To (cio.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the hand-in-the-cookie-jar dept.

itwbennett writes: In a complaint (PDF) filed Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) claims that "despite publicly promising not to, Google mines students' browsing data and other information, and uses it for the company's own purposes." The EFF says Google's practice of recording everything students do while they're logged into their Google accounts, regardless of the device or browser they're using, puts the company in breach of Section 5 of the Federal Communications Act.

1 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. No expectation of privacy on school systems by zerofoo · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Schools are required to safeguard non-public information about their students (medical records, grades, IEPs...etc). The EFF claim does not make it clear that Google has leaked non-public student information to any unauthorized people.

    Students have no expectation of privacy when using school supplied computer systems (Reichert v. Elizabethtown College). Schools are allowed to access and use any staff or student generated data if that data was generated using school supplied computer systems.

    EFF's cloud "sync" argument isn't too solid. Google's system of syncing data between devices is the entire point of Google Apps and their Chrome OS system. These systems are provided by the school district to the students and staff - just the same as local network supplied computer services - and the expectation of privacy is the same - there is none.