That being said, it looks like the students were right. Google has since acknowledged the claims that they do collect student information, but not for the nefarious ad-targeting reasons that we think they are for. This was revealed by Google in a response to Minnesota Senator Al Franken who was concerned about Google’s collection of data without permission from the students or their parents.
According to Google, they claim that while they do collect student information, it is more “providing, maintaining, and developing our services, and protecting users from harm.” The company then notes, “We specifically promise in our GAFE Privacy Notice that K12 students’ personal information is not used to target ads.”
Franken seems to be pretty pleased with Google’s explanations, although he does wonder if perhaps the privacy for students could be improved upon. According to Franken, “I’m also still interested in whether or not Google can provide parents and students with stronger privacy protections — for example, by allowing students to ‘opt-in’ to data collection. I plan to continue working with Google to clarify some of its policies, because it’s important for the privacy of our students.”
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