Google Collecting Student Data Without Permission, EFF Alleges in FTC Complaint
Google has been collecting and data mining the personal information of school children, alleged the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a complaint filed Tuesday with the FTC. EFF said in a news release that it discovered Google's practice while researching for…
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a newly launched campaign about the privacy risks of electronic devices and software supplied to schools. In examining Google's Chromebook and a suite of educational cloud-based software programs called Google Apps for Education, EFF said the company's "sync" feature for the Chrome browser is enabled by default, allowing the company "to track, store on its servers, and data mine for non-advertising purposes, records of every Internet site students visit, every search term they use, the results they click on, videos they look for and watch on YouTube, and their saved passwords." EFF said the company didn't get permission from students or parents to track such data. It said Google isn't living up to the "Student Privacy Pledge," which the company signed and EFF said is "legally enforceable." The privacy group said Google indicated it would "soon disable" the setting that allows sync data to be shared with the company's other services. But EFF said the company needs to do more. A Google spokeswoman said in an email to us: “Our services enable students everywhere to learn and keep their information private and secure. While we appreciate EFF's focus on student privacy, we are confident that these tools comply with both the law and our promises, including the Student Privacy Pledge."