Dive Brief:
- Google finally caved and signed a privacy pledge on Thursday, promising not to sell student data or use it to target ads.
- In October, a number of big ed tech providers — including Microsoft, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Amplify — signed the voluntary pledge. Google, along with Apple and Pearson, were noticeably missing from the list of signatories.
- While the "best practices" pledge does not necessarily enforce these behaviors, many believe it's a positive step in the right direction as more schools rely on digital data.
Dive Insight:
A spokesperson for Google told Ed Surge: “Protecting the privacy and security of all of our users, including students, is a top priority. We’re pleased to see the ed-tech industry come together to support this important issue and we've signed the pledge to reaffirm the commitments we’ve made directly to our customers.”
Some feel the pledge doesn't mean much, since many of the promises are actually going to be required under a new California law that says educational sites, apps, and cloud services within schools are prohibited from selling or disclosing personal information about K-12 students, from using the data for marketing services, and from creating files on that data. Still, raising awareness and setting standards is always an important step.
Data security fears manifested last year when InBloom, a cloud-based company, faced backlash from parents and advocacy groups nervous about the security of the data it collected. After enough pushback and contract terminations, InBloom ultimately closed its doors.
