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Google Accused of Tracking School Kids After Promising Not To (cio.com)
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.
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Breach of protocol there, sorry, but I read TFA.
This part seems kinda disturbing:
some schools require students to use Chromebooks
Why in the hell are schools requiring students to use Chromebooks? We're making people do business and give their personal deals to advertisers now? What's next, requiring Facebook?
This also does something much more subtle but very harmful to our society: it gets kids used to the world where nothing they "own" is really theirs, where everything they do is subject to the whims of someone else. Control over their computing devices is held by a multinational, whether Google or Apple or whoever. Instead, we should be getting kids used to freedom, both the power and the responsibility that comes with it.
Google acting like politicians, promising one thing and doing the opposite.
You should also take a damn close look at Android 6 privacy features. The new feature that lets users turn off rights to GPS, camera etc. for apps after installation.
On the face of it it sounds good, but the way they've done it is absolutely the opposite:
It lets an app install first, then demand priviledges as it goes along. It *tells* the app you are refusing it access to the camera or mic or address book, or location, or SMS's etc. So the app can slowly sucker you in Facebook style demanding more and more privileges to run as it has more and more leverage over you. You mid conversation a messaging app can demand access to your address book to let you finish the conversation, and Google's Android 6 will tell it if you refuse.
Google Player Services, aka Google's spyware* gets a free ride and its spyware can't be turned off. This service tracks location and even if you disable all Google services they continue to get the information. That is just the tip of the iceberg as to what that tracks.
Other similar features in other Android distributions, return empty data to the app, so it might demand access to the camera, but the camera data it gets is a noise image, and it might demand your address book, but it gets an empty address book instead if you refuse it access. So the app cannot know it has been refused access to the data and cannot leverage that to force you to give it access.
* Seriously take a good look at what that 'play' store is sending to Google, it helps itself to everything, and requests location even when the phone is on standby.
They are a privacy disaster and where the fook are the regulator?
once Pandora's box has been opened.
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.
There's probably an algorithm for projected income from the mined data versus likely fines for breach of conduct.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
... to maximize profits.
is anyone shocked? really? Large deployments of any system cost a lot of money - if Goog didnt charge a lot upfront they were clearly going to get money back somehow - it isn't a charity they have over there in Mountain View.
Google is the worst company in the world, even worse than oil companies or Nestle or Coke. Google is putting in danger the very values and freedoms that have brought prosperity to the West. Many companies may poison the body, but Google threatens to destroy the soul.
If google just changes their name to facebook then everyone will say it's fine and dandy. The problem here is just that people used to expect google not to do this kind of thing, while facebook started off explicitly designed to do this kind of thing.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
"Who's that hiding in my kid's closet with handcuffs and a gunnysack? Molester Joe! You silly-billy! When I hired you to babysit my kids, you promised you weren't going to try to kidnap them! You even signed a contract to that effect!
"Well, it's my fault, really--I knew you wouldn't be able to resist. All right, but this is your second strike. Five more strikes and I'll have to report it. Now get outta here, you scamp!"
Perhaps you should read the claim more closely. Google *agreed* not to spy on students (and yes I did use the word spy because that is what they're doing). This formed part of the basis for which Schools used their services. Since schools have a legal obligation to keep private student data private, this was essential to them.
Yet Google doesn't honor that agreement, and thus exposes the schools to legal consequence:
"Google’s practices fly in the face of commitments made when it signed the Student Privacy Pledge, a legally enforceable document whereby companies promise to refrain from collecting, using, or sharing students’ personal information except when needed for legitimate educational purposes or if parents provide permission."
"EFF’s filing with the FTC also reveals that the administrative settings Google provides to schools allow student personal information to be shared with third-party websites in violation of the Student Privacy Pledge. The ability to collect and potentially share student information follows children whenever they use Chrome to log into their Google accounts, whether on a parents’ Apple iPad, friend’s smartphone or home computer."
"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"
No, its an OPTIONAL feature that is turned on by default for School Chromebooks. Sure this might be the point of Chrome from Google's perspective (gaining market advantage by having access to private data), but that does not make it the schools entire purpose!
apparently that means to their bottom line and shareholders(i.e. Sergey and the other class B holders)
Schools get free Google Apps and Mail, what did you think was going to happen? They get to mine the data in exchange for "free" services.
once upon a time on slashdot you'd get modded troll for even hinting that google might actually be capable of evil. good times.
He once inserted random mutations into his code, just so he could have the experience of debugging.
With ipads and chromebooks everywhere, why aren't kids getting any smarter?
this is the first actual proof of evilness in my mind. Others were dubious but this is a bright line they just crossed. Just changed my mail address over to apple, and my browser to duckduck.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
45 billion dollar fine for Mark Zuckerberg should be enough of a deterrent for this offence.
I say: how many times do people have to get burned by Google to realize they are not honest, they are not on your side, and they have no intention of respecting the law or individual's rights? Something like this warrants awareness, but we sleep on and dream. It's our own effing fault.
"Don't be evil... unless, you know, being evil is profitable, and you don't think anyone will notice, then go for it!"
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
and Chromebooks and iThings are in fashion and are tracking kids, obviously. Where I work (secondary ed), people mandate children create gmail accounts and whatnot with no thought whatsoever to what that means.
This is not surprising at all and I'm glad that I support the EFF.
... to our yearly revenues.
No, in all cases I've seen, the Chromebooks are owned by the school and issued out to the kids when needed in certain classes. The schools aren't demanding the kids buy Chromebooks themselves to use for classwork outside of school.
How can you tell when a bunch of liberal demoncraps like Google is lying? Their lips are moving.
That said - liberal demoncraps are mostly unaware of reality and so they will often attempt to lie but fail to do so, accidentally telling the truth.
The only way you can know with absolute certainty that what a liberal demoncraps is murmuring is definitively an untruth is if they claim to promise or swear what they are saying is true. The reason this works is because the liberal demoncrap is incapable of keeping a promise or honoring an oath.
Why won't they tell you the truth? Because they hate you and want you to die. Not the generic you - you specifically, and those you care about.
Google syncs student data to their servers, including web searches, because Chromebooks back up everything to the cloud. If you back up your Windows machine to the cloud, you back up your search history as well. Nothing in the EFF's press release suggests that they have shown that Google does anything more than this, let alone "mines" that data or "uses it for the company's own purposes".
Any data generated using school systems is property of the school or school district.
Student data does not belong to the student. No one is forcing kids to put "their data" (whatever that means) on anyone else's computer.
From Google's Apps for Education Common Questions page:
https://support.google.com/a/a...
Will there be advertisements with Google Apps?
For all EDU domains, ads are turned off in Google Apps for Education services and K–12 Google Apps for Education users don't see ads when they use Google Search and are signed in to their Apps for Education accounts.
is thinking about the children.
Exactly. In our district, we have a BYOD program, but if kids bring their own Chromebook, it is THEIR Chromebook. It's merely subject to our filters when it's connected to our network.
they only give a fuck about their phones. It's rare to see a kid in the hall at my school who isn't completely absorbed by a glowing rectangle zombie walking down the hall as slow as possible with ear buds in.
How about if you had a private key used to encrypt the data before it was synced?