02/28/2020 / By Lance D Johnson
The State of New Mexico is taking a stand against Google. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is filing a lawsuit against parasitic Google, alleging that the data-mining juggernaut is collecting sensitive data from schoolchildren and using it against them. What Google is doing is a gross violation of the children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and a deliberate infarction of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act.
On the surface, Google looks like the saint, providing low to no cost hardware and software tools to students and educators across the nation. School districts, trying to cut costs, are reaping tremendous benefit from Google’s programs. However, educators and schoolchildren are paying the price as Google data mines their behavior, speech, activity and learning trends, monitoring every aspect of their education through the software tools. Google is allegedly collecting data and using it against the schoolchildren, paving the way for the children to be manipulated and used by Google, its third party advertisers and partners.
According to the suit, Google is collecting information about the children’s geolocation, browsing history and search query history. Every child is being analyzed without consent. Google is keeping a log of their contact lists and saved passwords. Google is also storing everything the children view and they are recording the children’s voices to understand “other behavioral information.” The information is collected and used for advertising purposes, and can be used to manipulate the children’s brains.
Most deceptively, Google has manipulated the school districts by not obtaining parental consent.
A federal law named COPPA protects data privacy and restricts the collection and use of confidential data for children under age 13. Any digital platform, website or app that collects data from children is required to post a privacy policy. The privacy policy must provide consent to all parents. All parents are supposed to be given an option to opt out of data collection so their child’s information is not shared with third parties. The law also requires data mining entities to follow data storage and retention policies and parents are allowed to review their child’s data. According to the lawsuit, Google is in violation of this law because they are deceiving school districts and parents with its data policies. Google promised not to mine student data for commercial purposes, but they are doing just that, without parental consent.
“Google has used Google Education to spy on New Mexico children and their families,” the suit alleges.
“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,” stated New Mexico Attorney General Balderas.
Always looking for new ways to collect data on people, Google is a parasite preying on the privacy of our daily lives. With 5G on the horizon, Google looks to multiply its data-mining empire, as the “Internet of Things” becomes the eyes and ears of Google. Feeding on our very essence, Google has become a malignant infection that seeks to collect and use confidential data about every detail of our lives. Building a psychological profile on every man, woman and child, Google is NOT a tool for building a better society. Instead, Google is using people as tools to manipulate society, to hold power, and get what they want.
For more on the abuses of Google, visit BigTech.news.
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Tagged Under: behavioral information, dangerous tech, data collection, data mining, deception, exploitation of children, Glitch, Google, Internet of Things, parental consent, Parental rights, privacy violations, privacy watch, psychological profile, spying, surveillance
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