GOOGLE – has NOT protected Privacy: Parents need to evaluate what is happening in their Schools with Data collection by Ed Tech companies. More than half of K-12 grade Students use GOOGLE every day in the classroom.

Google has agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states in connection with an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations. This has been called the largest multi-state privacy settlement in U.S history.

Google to pay 40 states $392M in location-tracking settlement
The investigation by the states, which officials said was spurred by a 2018 Associated Press story, found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking.

What about Google in the classroom?

“Today, more than half the nation’s primary- and secondary-school students — more than 30 million children — use Google education apps like Gmail and Docs, the company said. And Chromebooks, Google-powered laptops that initially struggled to find a purpose, are now a powerhouse in America’s schools. Today they account for more than half the mobile devices shipped to schools.” Full article.

Oklahoma received 6.8 mill from Google for TRACKING Oklahomans: “This type of data is extremely personal for consumers,” said Attorney General O’Connor. “I am glad Oklahoma will benefit from this historic settlement which proves that no entity, not even big tech companies, is above the law.”

Google “records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.” – AP In the largest multi-state AG settlement ever, the attorneys general found that Google violated state consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location-tracking practices since at least 2014.

Is my child’s Data Collected by Google Classroom?
Educators need to obtain permission from parents or guardians before implementing Google Classroom, and ensure they approve of their children using the internet and Google products. It also would be a good idea for students to be reminded by both their families and teachers that when using technology at school, they need to be responsible digital citizens. Make sure they are familiar with internet safety and the importance of refraining from sharing private or sensitive information over the internet.

Googling Education – Is Student Data Really Private with Google? 

Denise Tayloe is CEO of PRIVO and is a recognized leader and authority in children’s online privacy, customer identity and consent management. Tayloe’s company helps organizations navigate the opportunities and challenges of implementing COPPA. “We have spoken to countless developers and online service providers over the years who are quick to tell us they are COPPA compliant and do not trigger COPPA since no personal data is directly being collected from children under 13,” said Tayloe. “Companies also like to boast their lawyer has made sure they are COPPA compliant. Being in the trenches for over a decade helping companies obtain COPPA certification, we can tell you in most cases, companies are not 100 percent buttoned up as they should be, especially in the school setting. The FTC has brought 31 cases to enforce it, in addition to enforcement from state attorneys general like New York’s Operation Child Tracker and New Mexico’s AG suing Google, Twitter and other companies for violating children’s privacy.”

Mississippi Attorney General Sues Google Over Student Data-Privacy

“Through this lawsuit, we want to know the extent of Google’s data mining and marketing of student information to third parties,” Hood said in a statement. “I don’t think there could be any motivation other than greed for a company to deliberately keep secret how it collects and uses student information.”

In 2015 The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint against Google, “for collecting and data mining school children’s personal information, including their Internet searches.”

Part of Google’s response was: “We track student browser history because it is helpful for the development of classroom products.”

If you view G Suite’s Privacy Policy you will learn Google will share children’s personal information with others.
Some of us do not want Google to share our children’s personal information with others, or to track our children’s browsers history to help them develop products. The problem is this is done without parental consent and most parents have no idea what’s going on.