[1st-mile-nm] New Mexico AG sues Google over alleged child privacy violations

[Richard Lowenberg]

New Mexico AG sues Google over alleged child privacy violations

Hector Balderas claims Google is violating COPPA by collecting students' 
Chromebook data.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
https://www.engadget.com/2020/02/20/google-new-mexico-ag-child-privacy-lawsuit

Google is being sued by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas. In 
a lawsuit filed Thursday, Balderas alleges that Google is violating 
COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and New Mexico's Unfair 
Practices Act by collecting data on students who use Chromebooks through 
the G Suite for Education platform.

According to Balderas, Google gathers location data, browsing and search 
histories, contacts, voice recordings, passwords and more, from children 
of all ages, without giving parents the ability to limit or review the 
data collection. The lawsuit also claims that until 2014, Google fed 
this data to its advertising business and that Google monitors teachers 
in a similar manner. Google has not yet responded to a request for 
comment.

While Google collects this type of data on many of its users, violating 
child privacy laws, at the state or federal level, could be a serious 
offense. Outside of the Google Education program, the lawsuit points 
out, Google forbids anyone in the US under the age of 13 from having 
their own Google account. The Google Education program provides a kind 
of loophole, but it must abide by the same laws.

"Tracking student data without parental consent is not only illegal, it 
is dangerous; and my office will hold any company accountable who 
compromises the safety of New Mexican children," Balderas said in a 
press release.

Google says these claims are "factually wrong."

"G Suite for Education allows schools to control account access and 
requires that schools obtain parental consent when necessary," a company 
spokesperson told Engadget. "We do not use personal information from 
users in primary and secondary schools to target ads."

This isn't the first time Balderas has sued Google over alleged child 
privacy violations. In 2018, he accused Google and other companies of 
violating COPPA. That lawsuit, which is ongoing, is separate from the 
one filed Thursday. Balderas is also part of a larger antitrust probe 
into Google, and he has asked other companies, like BitTorrent, what 
they do to prevent child exploitation.

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Update 4:09PM ET: A Google spokesperson provided the following statement 
to Engadget. We have updated this post accordingly.

These claims are factually wrong. G Suite for Education allows schools 
to control account access and requires that schools obtain parental 
consent when necessary. We do not use personal information from users in 
primary and secondary schools to target ads. School districts can decide 
how best to use Google for Education in their classrooms and we are 
committed to partnering with them.



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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