Google Uses Education Products to Track Online Activity of Students and Steal Personal Data

Android maker Google was recently accused of harming the youth by secretly making use of education products to track them.

A new lawsuit filed by concerned parents speaks about how the tech giant is making use of education products deployed at schools to highlight every student on an individual basis. They can track all online activity, including websites they visit and any links they click, using that to steal personal information.

The matter is an alarming one because nearly 70% of all American schools make use of Google Workspace inside classrooms. The latest review by a media organization shared several Bay Area School districts utilizing the exact same software.

Google embeds this tracking tech that is disguised to follow the whereabouts of the kids online. This gives rise to a new fingerprint unique to every student, as shared in the legal case. The legal case goes on to speak about how Google is harming the youth by invading privacy and making personal information vulnerable to criminals. They don’t compensate them for any of this, nor do their parents know who collects the data and where it goes.

Google was similarly accused of violating state laws related to wiretapping and privacy. This is why plaintiffs want compensation from the company for damages linked to this unauthorized student-information collection.

The latest fingerprint enables the Android maker and more to highlight individual phones and specific people. The company can, in this manner, track kids, no matter where they might be and where they’re traveling to.

The company has previously been accused of similar behavior in the past. In 2019, the tech giant paid out damages worth $170 million to settle all the claims made by the FTC. This had to do with unlawfully getting personal data from the youth who use YouTube.

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As per the lawsuit, Google is transforming troves of information from millions into very intricate student profiles. It then uses them to market goods and services to schools and gives rise to economic value. All stolen data, including information about kids below 13, exceeds what is needed for kids to take part in that activity facilitated through Google’s products. The fact that kids cannot opt out of using these products makes it all the worse.

Since then, Google has released a statement on this front but refuted the allegations. It did, however, agree to data collection from educational products.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World