PRIVACY AMISS: Once again Google finds itself under fire for alleged student data privacy breaches. Mississippi Attorney General, Jim Hood, is suing (PDF) the tech giant for “unfair methods of competition and deceptive trade practices.” Specifically, Hood contests that the company tracks and stores student data for advertising purposes, even though Google’s contract says it does not do so once a student is logged into a G Suite for Education account and uses services like YouTube, Google News, or Google Maps.
Hood seeks to have Google disclose all data collection practices, to fully abide by the established contractual agreements with the state and pay a penalty of up to $10,000 for each student in the state. Hood claims that Google has already profited from the student data it collected. According to AP sources, with half of Mississippi students using, GSFE this fine could cost Google over $1 billion.
This is not the first time that Google has raised concerns over its student data practices. In 2016, Sen. Al Franken from Minnesota made similar inquiries into Google privacy practices—questioning the company’s usage of student information for non-educational purposes.
