By B.N. Frank
Google is well known already for collecting data on customers with their products and services. This is sometimes referred to as “Surveillance Capitalism” and many businesses do it whether customers are aware of it or not.
A documentary was even produced about “Surveillance Capitalism.”
Creepy indeed. Tech use by kids in and out of schools may now be the “new normal”. However, tech insiders (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc.) and other Silicon Valley parents have been taking expensive and sometimes drastic measures to keep it away from their kids ALL ALONG. Public school systems keep pushing tech in the curriculums anyway. Now 2 kids are striking back about alleged involuntary data collection by Google while using the company’s educational tools.
Activist Post Recommended Book: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
From CNET:
Two children sue Google for allegedly collecting students’ biometric data
The lawsuit says the search giant violated privacy laws with its educational tools.
Two children from Illinois are suing Google for allegedly collecting biometric data, including face scans, of millions of students through the search giant’s software tools for classrooms.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a federal court in San Jose, California, is seeking class-action status. The children, known only as H.K. and J.C. in the complaint, are suing through their father, Clinton Farwell.
Google is using its services to create face templates and “voiceprints” of children, the complaint says, through a program in which the search giant provides school districts across the country with Chromebooks and free access to G Suite for Education apps. Those apps include student versions of Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs.
The data collection would likely violate Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, which regulates facial recognition, fingerprinting and other biometric technologies in the state. The practice would also likely run afoul of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, a federal law that requires sites to get parental consent when collecting personal information from users who are under 13 years old.
On a related note, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is seeking data collection horror stories to stop the Fitbit-Google merger.
Also noteworthy, Google is being sued for genocide complicity in China and endangering humanity with misuse of AI.
Activist Post reports regularly about unsafe technology. For more information, visit our archives.
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Two Kids Sue Google for Allegedly Collecting Students’ Biometric Data with Their Educational Tools