By: Rebecca Meadows

image source: https://www.bluerangetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gsuite-managedservices.png

Students of all ages are familiar with the increasing role of technology in the classroom. Outpacing all rival technology brands working on educational technology, Google is working especially hard to make its presence known in this sphere.[1] By 2017, over 30 million school students –over half of the school students in the country – were using Google education applications.[2] In addition to offering Chromebooks for educational use, Google offers G Suite for Education – a collection of easy to use tools for collaborative learning.[3] It took Google only five years to create this kind of presence by using creative sales methods, such as working directly with teachers and administrators to test and promote Google’s products.[4]

However, Google is hoping that these students will continue as Google customers by encouraging them to eventually transition from educational Google accounts to regular consumer Google accounts and applications.[5] This is significant because Google earns most of its revenue through online advertising, which it customizes through sophisticated use of personal data.[6] This has parents very concerned that Google is using data from the online activities of students.[7]

The attorney general of New Mexico raised these concerns in a complaint filed against Google on February 20, 2020.[8] The complaint alleges that Google has used effective marketing strategies to drive adoption of their services in schools, including advertising as a free and purely educational tool, but also including claims that Google takes data privacy very seriously.[9] Google promised that it would never collect students’ data for its own commercial purposes, but the New Mexico complaint alleges that Google intentionally did just that.[10]

The complaint alleges that Google has violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).[11] According to COPPA, any online service that collects personal information from children must provide notice to the child’s parent about its data collection practices, and must obtain consent from the parent prior to any collection or use of data.[12] Google Education collects personal information such as physical location, website history, contact lists, and behavioral information.[13] Furthermore, Google ordinarily does not allow children under the age of 13 to have a Google account, because Google is aware of COPPA and its rules for children.[14] However, Google was using the unique position of Google Education to get around that limitation.[15] Google did not notify parents of the types of personal information that it collects from the children, and also did not attempt to obtain parental consent for this data collection.[16]

The complaint also alleges that Google’s data collection in violation of COPPA constitutes a deceptive act that unfairly affects commerce, and therefore also violates the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act.[17] Google’s deceptive practices include the harvesting of personal data without the knowledge or consent of students’ parents, as well as committing material misrepresentations by having students sign a Student Privacy Pledge that was misleading and omitted the extent of the privacy violations.[18]

The third and final cause of action listed in the complaint is that Google intruded upon seclusion of all New Mexico citizens.[19] This claim explains that citizens of the state have reasonable expectations for their privacy, and Google intentionally intruded on those private affairs by intentionally designing the Google Education services to improperly gain data.[20]

Google has previously been accused of violating federal children’s privacy law, and just last September had to pay $170 million to settle a lawsuit regarding the illegal harvesting of children’s personal data through YouTube.[21] However, in 2015, Google had signed a pledge on student privacy, promising to not “collect, maintain, use or share student personal information beyond that needed for educational purposes”, as well as promising not to collect data for behavioral ad targeting.[22] These data privacy lawsuits against show that Google has broken that pledge and the law by continuing to gather children’s data for their own commercial uses.[23]

[1] See Natasha Singer & Daisuke Wakabayashi, New Mexico Sues Google Over Children’s Privacy Violations, N.Y. Times (Feb. 20, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/technology/new-mexico-google-lawsuit.html.

[2] See Natasha Singer, How Google Took Over the Classroom, N.Y. Times (May 13, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/technology/google-education-chromebooks-schools.html.

[3] See id.; G Suite for Education, Google, https://edu.google.com/products/gsuite-for-education/?modal_active=none.

[4] See supra note 2.

[5] See id.

[6] See id.

[7] See id.

[8] See Complaint, New Mexico v. Google LLC, (D.N.M. 2020), No. 1:20-cv-00143-NF-KHR, 2020 WL 837510.

[9] See id. at 2, 4

[10] See id. at 4, 5.

[11] See id. at 59.

[12] See id. at 60.

[13] See id. at 5.

[14] See id. at 8.

[15] See id.

[16] See id. at 67, 69.

[17] See id. at 73.

[18] See id. at 77, 80.

[19] See id. at 88.

[20] See id. at 89, 91.

[21] See supra note 1.

[22] Id.

[23] See id.