The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint with the FTC last week alleging that Google invades student privacy by tracking search history and other activity on Chromebooks. Millions of students in the U.S. — more than 50 percent of K-12 students with devices purchased by their school — use Chromebooks.
The filing is part of the EFF’s larger “Spying on Students” campaign to highlight different ways devices given to students monitor them. Google replied with a blog post, claiming it follows the law as well as an industry-wide pledge to protect student privacy it signed this fall. In its response, the EFF doubled down on its allegation. The FTC will decide, but this raises questions about the devices schools give students.
EFF’s complaint comes the same week that VTech had the profile information, photos, and chat messages of more than six million children and nearly five million adults downloaded by a hacker. Fortunately, this appears to be the work of a white hat who wanted to reveal the system’s vulnerability.
So add monitoring how devices monitor your kid to the list of jobs for the modern parent. Online activity plays a role in the things you see, the job you get, bank loans and credit scores. Regardless of whether Google’s behavior is actionable, it makes sense to pay close attention to the digital trail children are leaving before they even know they’re doing it.
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Photo Credit: Kevin Jarrett