Dive Brief:
- Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressing concerns over student privacy and asking that the tech giant release information about its collection and use of student data.
- Franken's questions for Google reflect concerns presented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which previously filed a formal FCC complaint against the company for alleged data collection within the Google Apps for Education tool suite.
- Google rebutted the EFF's claims, and it's not yet clear how the company will respond to Franken.
Dive Insight:
The complaint previously filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in relation to Google's alleged data collection is now sitting in the hands of the FCC. The EFF is also holding a crowd-sourced campaign that intends to uncover more student data breaches in ed tech devices and platforms. Yet Google does appear to be a primary target of the EFF’s “Spying on Students” campaign, launched Dec. 1.
For his part, Franken has been an advocate of digitizing classrooms. In 2013, he co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that would promote open-source textbooks in K-12 classrooms. "Open-source," for that purpose, is described as "licensed under an open license and made freely available online to the public."
