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After the advent and development of the information
technology, we can now easily access a sea of valuable and relevant information.
The internet has become the most prominent resource for gathering information
both for us and the major corporations. Nowadays, online data collection and
data mining has become an essential process for various market research
companies and other organisations.
It has been reported that some search
engines and social networks follow data mining practices that do not affect the
privacy of the users. Search engines like Google stores and studies the data
that users search on the internet. However, most users are concerned about this
as the stored data might be used against the users in near future. Generally,
if a company wants to gather data from individuals then it needs to attain
permission from the users for accessing their personal information and
encroaching on privacy rights.
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Google has been collecting data from the
users through the various services it provides in order to sell advertising.
But now Google has admitted to scanning received and sent emails of innumerable
students using its Apps for Education suite. It creates unauthorised and hidden
profiles of them for the purpose of targeting the students with advertising.
Earlier Google had launched a new privacy policy to enhance its capacity for
targeting its users with ads that are developed through online data mining.
Then it claimed that students who used Google Apps for Education would not be
affected by this. But the recent announcement tells a completely different
story.
Through its Apps for Education, Google has
been gathering data by scanning and indexing the emails of 30 million users and
this data is utilised by schools all across the globe, although the new
consumer privacy policy does not include Google Apps for Education. The
California based multinational corporation is now facing a lawsuit for
inappropriately scanning personal emails to deliver advertisements as it
directly violates federal and state wiretap laws. It collects the data through
an automated process which can’t be turned off for potential advertising.
However, Google has denied that the data is used for ad targeting to particular
users.
A
Washington-based advocacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is
representing a group of 9 plaintiffs who affirmed that such data mining
practices breach the basic principles for student privacy and it also infringes
state and federal wiretap laws. The plaintiffs aim to make it a representative
action lawsuit that would result in a compensation of millions of dollars and
make the company more transparent about the data collection and mining
practices. This case can strongly influence the interpretation of Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Google Apps for Education, the free
productivity apps suite is used by almost 30 million users worldwide. These are
included in Google’s laptop range Chromebooks which are highly popular in
American public schools. Google has admitted to scanning and indexing for different
reasons, which includes advertising, as well as marking received and sent
emails as important and filtering out spams. The company has confirmed that
it’s not possible to turn off the system; but Google has said the data is not
utilised for targeting users for Apps for Education with ads until they
preferred receiving the ads.
The Director of Google Apps for Education,
Bram Bout, said “Ads in Gmail are turned off by default for Google Apps for
Education, and we have no plans to change that in the future.” However, the
company utilises the information it collects from Apps for Education and
advertise on other online services like YouTube and Google Search.
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| Source: bit.ly/1ip1WIu |
Google has tried to dismiss the lawsuit by
saying these apps are included in the new privacy policy that covers all Google
services. But as the data from the Gmail accounts is utilised for the purpose
of advertising, the group of plaintiffs assert that the corporation is using
the information from Apps for Education emails in the same way. This is
certainly a violation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act that
protects the privacy of educational records. This might result in an
investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and the Education Department on
Google. However, the Education Department has not made any comments on this
issue.
The plaintiffs are claiming that even
non-Gmail users have also been affected by this data mining process of Google
as they have merely sent emails to different Gmail users and have never agreed
to Google's terms of services or their privacy policy. The group of plaintiffs,
which also includes 2 students who have used the education suite, are looking
for compensation for every user who has been affected by such controversial
practices of Google. They are looking for financial damages of $100 for every affected
individual for each day of violation.
Article Source: bit.ly/1m6uMUB, bit.ly/1gHlsmm
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