A new lawsuit claims that Google secretly monitors the internet activity of children. The lawsuit, which was filed by the State of New Mexico, follows a $170 million settlement paid by Google over claims that it collects personal information from children on YouTube.
According to a report by CBS News, a lawsuit against Google claims that the company uses its various education offerings to monitor children. Google Education used by 80 million students around the country, in part, because Google offers the program for free to schools. 25 million of those students use Chromebook laptops, which run an operating system designed by Google.
The lawsuit claims that the Internet giant is using its education platform to monitor private data such as the child’s physical location, the websites they visit, their search terms, and their passwords.
“The consequences of Google’s tracking cannot be overstated: Children are being monitored by one of the largest data-mining companies in the world, at school, at home, on mobile devices, without their knowledge and without the permission of their parents,” the lawsuit reads.
But Google says that the lawsuit’s claims are inaccurate. A spokesperson for Google told CBS News that they don’t use personal information from children to create targeted advertisements.
“G Suite for Education allows schools to control account access and requires that schools obtain parental consent when necessary,” the spokesperson said. “We do not use personal information from users in primary and secondary schools to target ads. School districts can decide how best to use Google for Education in their classrooms and we are committed to partnering with them.”
Source: Breitbart
