Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy

Response to EFF complaint about student data privacy
googleforeducation.blogspot.com

> There are no ads in these Core Services, and student data in these services is not used for advertising purposes.

This isn't in the original EFF complaint, EFF specifically says (at least in the press release [1]) that Google doesn't advertise:

EFF:

>This allows Google to track, store on its servers, and data mine for non-advertising purposes

Google then says:

>In addition, our systems compile data aggregated from millions of users of Chrome Sync and, after completely removing information about individual users, we use this data to holistically improve the services we provide. For example if data shows that millions of people are visiting a webpage that is broken, that site would be moved lower in the search results. This is not connected to any specific person nor is it used to analyze student behaviors.

Which is exactly what the EFF's complaint is about!

EFF:

>Google’s practices fly in the face of commitments made when it signed the Student Privacy Pledge, a legally enforceable document whereby companies promise to refrain from collecting, using, or sharing students’ personal information except when needed for legitimate educational purposes or if parents provide permission.

so imho Google just confirms what the EFF said

[1] https://www.eff.org/press/releases/google-deceptively-tracks...

Some examples:

- Google Hangouts is one of the covered apps. But to be actually useful (e.g. if you want to share images), you had to turn on Google+. Images end up in Google+ photo albums, which are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and the data can be mined for advertising purposes.

- Google Drive is also covered, which means that data on Drive is not mined for ads. However, in a realistic work environment, you have to share files outside your organisation. If you share a file and someone ends up opening it on a non-Apps Google account, your document has been leaked to an ad-mined Drive account.

- When Google Photos was introduced, suddenly all my Drive photos were there as well. Google Photos is not covered, which means that the photos can be mined for ads. Luckily, this problem seems to have been resolved.

- Google Mail is covered by the terms of apps. But if I go to Google Plus, people I communicated with via e-mail are suggested as circle additions. Since Google Plus is not covered by the Apps terms, why does data from e-mail end up there?

My impression is that (perhaps driven by the consumer apps) data isolation is a real problem within Google and there is a certain amount of data shared between apps that are covered by the Google Apps terms and those that aren't. This seriously undermines my trust in Google Apps and its suitability for business/education.

Of course, I could switch off every Google service in Apps outside what is covered. But then you need two Google accounts, which is really inconvenient.

https://fpf.org/about/our-mission/

Their "About Us and "Mission" pages are identical, and are full of glowing talk about convening a discussion that "seeks to advance responsible data practices", and doesn't say anything about privacy. This smells strongly of a corporate/lobbyist PR front.