New Mexico AG Sues Google For Allegedly Collecting Location Data, Contact Lists From Students

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Google on Thursday was hit with a lawsuit by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, alleging the search giant is illegally collecting data on school children. The suit says Google is collecting the personal information through a program the company has with New Mexico's school districts, in which it provides Chromebooks and access to G Suite for Education apps for free. Those apps include Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs. The practice would run afoul of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, a federal law that regulates data collection from sites with users who are under 13 years old. The lawsuit accuses Google of collecting information on students' locations, their passwords, what websites they've visited, what they've searched for on Google and YouTube, their contact lists and voice recordings. Balderas also said in the lawsuit that Google "mined students' email accounts" and "extracted" information for advertising purposes until 2014. Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said in a statement: "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."

non denial denial

[goombah99]

The spokesman says " We do not use personal information from users in primary and secondary schools to target ads." basically admitting they do scoop up this personal information.

The response to your assertion that this is normal is that no it's your new normal and the one google wants to be. But there is zero reason it has to be. For example, it's perfectly possible to run an encrypted contacts book that google can't read. They just act as some data enclave you control the keys to locally. It's perfectly possible for them to set up messaging channels that do not record who messaged whom.

And why won't they? Not because it's too hard. It's not. Is it because they want to use this information for profit. Not that either -- right now. It's because they want to establish they can collect this information, that they are not responsible for keeping it secure, that they can share it in their ecosystem of partners, and ---- this is the big reason-- to make this the accepted norm.

New Mexico is suing for more than e-mail snooping

[goombah99]

According to the lawsuit, Google collected troves of personal information including students’ physical locations, visits to websites, internet searches, videos viewed on YouTube, contact lists, voice recordings and saved passwords, among other details.

Recall that one of the reasons google exists at all was because the Justice Department and the EU causes the Microsoft steamroller to pause in it's leveraging it's platform into a unified data hegemony. That hiccup, allowing alternate browsers and alternative e-mail to become easy to install, is what fostered Google. Now google is on the same path.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

physical locations, visits to websites, internet searches, videos viewed on YouTube, contact lists, voice recordings and saved passwords

COPPA prohibits collecting personally identifying information from under-13s. That includes name, address, phone number, email address. COPPA also prohibits the collection of geo-location and voice recordings. COPPA does not prohibit tracking browsing history or passwords (although other laws may cover these).

Google could argue that the schools acted in loco parentis to give them permission. That is a reasonable argument since schools do this all the time. My kid has accounts on several websites that he

Yea sure...

[SirAstral]

That is the worst thing those poor children are having done to them right now.

Just lets get them used to being spied on, tracked, monitored, and generally made into a virtual slave but never actually calling it that. Instead of letting them be themselves and learning what they want to learn lets fuck up their education and make sure they are taught that they can be anything they want (rubbish), and that they are special (no one is) and that College is critical to their future and they do not have to grow u

Re: Yea sure...

[Way Smarter Than You]

You'll be the first one in a Bernie Bro re-education camp next January.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Sweeping narrow blanket denials

[Canberra1]

How about parents revoke authority on some days, and add it back when required. Is the consent always valid - parents split up, custody matters etc. The effective date of consent is also crucial. Notice the silence on what information is actually collected and the start-end dates. There are going to be outliers, if the school is managing consent matters. I suppose a sharp lawyer will claim the school is collecting the information on behalf of... The 'We do not use' bit is irrelevant distraction. Did you col

A bit confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that the attorney general of NM, or a new attorney general of Mexico?

Good. The more lawsuits the better

[Anonymous Coward]

until they learn not to be EVIL.

Forced consent?

[Way Smarter Than You]

So, in order to attend public schools paid for by tax dollars were children and their parents forced to join this Google program? What happened to children whose parents opted out? Was it a mandatory program? If so, then consent could not be granted. The school district is not empowered to grant or manage consent for the child, either. Despite what they may feel, the parents have final authority over their children, not school district administration morons who got a kickback from Google. And what's th

Meow

[oliverrogers165]

Children love to travel and play arcade games. I think these are useful skills that help to realize your dreams. You can watch these resources for more information [gradesfixer.com] for your child. Travel and self-development contribute to the development of your child. He can gain valuable knowledge and valuable skills.