INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Pupils in California open new Chromebook laptop computers
The
attorney general of the US state of New Mexico is suing Google, accusing the company of illegally collecting the personal data of school
The tech giant is alleged to have collected data on which websites pupils visited, passwords, videos watched, contact lists, and other
information.The data was allegedly gathered from Google's Chromebook laptops and G Suite for Education programme.Google disputes the
claim, with a spokesman calling it "factually wrong".Google Chromebooks and the G Suite for Education - which includes Gmail, Calendar,
Drive, Docs and others - are offered for free to more than 60% of students in New Mexico, according to the lawsuit.Attorney General Hector
Balderas said Google had failed to get parental consent from children under 13 and collected their data for commercial purposes, in
violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
Image copyrightGetty Images"Student safety should be the number one priority of any company providing services to our children, particularly
in schools," Mr Balderas said in a statement
"Tracking student data without parental consent is not only illegal, it is dangerous.""Google should be telling parents that they're going
to stalk and track these children, and under the guise of education," he added, according to KRQU News in Albuquerque.The lawsuit says that
more than 80m teachers and students in the US use Google's education platform and tools.Jose Castaneda, a spokesman for Google, said their
programme "allows schools to control account access and requires that schools obtain parental consent when necessary"."We do not use
personal information from users in primary and secondary schools to target ads," his statement added.The attorney general told US media that
he had contacted school districts across the state to assure them that there was no imminent threat in continuing to use Google
personal data from children on YouTube.
