[IAEP] [UKids] "Google accused of tracking school kids after it promised not to"

[Anish Mangal]

You can be sure that if google is doing it, a large number of smaller more
educationally focused companies are in this as well. It is perhaps not
worth EFFs time to go after them individually.

This just highlights the risks of living your life on the cloud, and why
increasingly, movements like http://redecentralize.org/ are gathering
momentum. It maybe okay for adults, but with children, taking their
decisions for them with huge future implications for their lives - a lot
more thought needs to go in (eg: the recent amazon fire tablet thread)

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 8:20 AM, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:

> ReCode has a useful summary of today's back+forth accusations down below.
>
> But younger students may want to understand first, who invited the
> advertising industry into the classroom in the 1st place:
>
> https://epic.org/privacy/student/
> http://www.studentprivacymatters.org
> https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/studentprivacy
>
> https://washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/03/06/why-a-student-privacy-bill-of-rights-is-desperately-needed/
>
> On Dec 2, 2015 8:32 PM, "Adam Holt" <holt at laptop.org> wrote:
> >
> > Google goes for the Trump defense, denying everything:
> >
> >
> http://googleforeducation.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-facts-about-student-data-privacy-in.html
> >
> > EFF clarifies Google’s Student Tracking Isn’t Limited to Chrome Sync:
> >
> >
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/googles-student-tracking-isnt-limited-chrome-sync
>
> ReCode Summary Excerpt:
>
> 'The EFF, in its Wednesday post, admits that Sync can be a useful service,
> but stresses that students shouldn’t be “guinea pigs in Google’s efforts to
> improve its products” without the explicit approval of their parents.
>
> “Google is creating this little army of loyal users. These kids are being
> conditioned to give up their personal data in order to go online,” said
> Cope, the EFF lawyer. “There’s just a lot of opaqueness of what data
> they’re collecting and how they’re using it.”
>
> More than 200 companies have signed the Student Privacy Pledge, including
> Apple and Microsoft. (Google actually initially declined to sign the
> pledge, citing its existing privacy rules, but then changed course a week
> later
> <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/01/20/google-changes-course-signs-student-data-privacy-pledge/>
> .)
>
> A rep for the FTC confirmed that the agency had received the EFF
> complaint, but declined to comment further.
>
> Google was forced to pay a $22.5 million fine to the FTC in 2012
> <http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443404004577579232818727246> to
> settle charges for tracking Apple iPhone users.
>
> Tech companies have all benefited from a White House initiative to prepare
> students for the 21st century. Google may be the biggest beneficiary; while
> its affordable Chromebooks have not seen wide consumer traction, they’ve
> taken off in schools. IDC estimates that sales of the devices grew by 310
> percent last year, surpassing sales from Microsoft and Apple.'
>
> In Full:
>
> http://recode.net/2015/12/02/google-no-were-not-snooping-on-students-with-our-chromebooks-apps/
>
> > On Dec 2, 2015 1:00 PM, "Adam Holt" <holt at laptop.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Dec 2, 2015 11:02 AM, "Jerry Vonau" <jvonau3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > That was one of the fears I had about enabling sugar's
> webservices[1]. I was refusing to implement that functionality in the AU
> images as each territory in AU has a different education department with
> different rules, but was available in the SL testing images that were being
> produced by myself the time. Now I have to ask the question has SugarLabs
> or other deployments such as OneEducation signed the "Student Privacy
> Pledge"? Even as a non-profit I would still consider them a company just
> protected by a corporate shield.
> >>
> >> Careful!
> >>
> >> When http://studentprivacypledge.org appears to be a shill quickly
> created by an advertising industry/Doubleclick/AOL alum, funded by the
> likes of Axciom (http://youtu.be/F7P2ViCRObs !) whose business models
> inherently compel "astroturf" DC lobbying to avoid student privacy
> practices with teeth.
> >>
> >> Very clever name they chose ("Future of Privacy") as if DC lobbyists
> will have the final word on our mental-spiritual futures?  Even if Amazon
> still refuses to sign the Student Privacy Pledge 14 months later, that they
> and Google helped fund, comical if it weren't real peoples lives they were
> playing with?
> >>
> >> At least the presumptuous "Future of Privacy" is honest enough to
> outline at https://fpf.org/about/ that they are DC lobbyists for business
> as usual ("self-regulation") rather than informed student/family consent.
> Yet more unreadable disclaimers, rather than tight clarity, and clean
> recourse with teeth.
> >>
> >> With so much DC lobbying money sloshing around (
> https://fpf.org/about/supporters/) they will certainly be a player!
> Driving home Silicon Valley's predominant
> "our-antiprivacy-is-so-much-better-than-the-NSA's" mindset into 2016's
> elections, and far beyond?
> >>
> >> Ourselves, we should start with Global Educators, who _genuinely_ care
> about student/community autonomy, the environment, and self-determination
> as a life trajectory.  Beyond DC entrapment and the latest Wall Street
> earnings target --- here instead are folks with Actual Backbones, opening
> avenues of HOPE not fatalism:
> >>
> >> http://studentdataprinciples.org
> >> https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/action/child-rights
> >> https://www.eff.org/issues/student-privacy
> >> http://childrenandbusiness.org
> >>
> >> > Just my nickel's worth,
> >> >
> >> > Jerry
> >> >
> >> > 1. https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Web_Services
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 9:33 AM, Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> Electronic Frontier Foundation says Google collects data from
> students and uses it to target ads and improve its products.
> >> >>
> >> >> "The digital rights group said Google’s use of the data, collected
> through its Google for Education program, puts the company in breach of
> Section 5 of the Federal Communications Act and asked the Federal Trade
> Commission to investigate.
> >> >>
> >> >> Despite publicly promising not to, Google mines students’ browsing
> data and other information, and uses it for the company’s own purposes,”
> the EFF said..."
> >> >>
> >> >> "Last month, Google said more than 50 million students and teachers
> around the globe were using Google Apps for Education, along with 10
> million Chromebooks. The Google-powered laptops are “the best-selling
> device in U.S. K-12 schools,” according to Google.
> >> >>
> >> >> But the EFF has some issues with the way Google delivers those
> services. It says the company records everything students do while they’re
> logged into their Google accounts, regardless of the device or browser
> they’re using, including their search history, the search results they
> click on and the videos they watch on YouTube.
> >> >>
> >> >> Google aggregates and anonymizes the data collected through its
> education services, the EFF said, but not when the students are using other
> Google services. And it argues that truly anonymizing data is “difficult to
> the point of being impossible,” especially when it’s tied to identifiable
> accounts at the time of collection.
> >> >>
> >> >> Google’s practices “fly in the face of commitments made when it
> signed the Student Privacy Pledge,” the EFF said, referring to a document
> signed by 200 companies including Google, Microsoft and Apple..."
> >> >>
> >> >>
> http://www.pcworld.com/article/3011076/privacy/google-accused-of-tracking-school-kids-after-it-promised-not-to.html
> >> >>
> >> >> --
> >> >> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
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