Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has filed suit against Google for violation of the K-12 School Service Provider Pledge to Safeguard Student Privacy.  The suit will work its way through the legal system and a judgement made based on its merit, but it is important to point out that the suit contains some important misunderstandings about the student privacy pledge. The complaint alleges that Google violated the student privacy pledge because it collected information about students who are using general purpose services. The pledge, however, only applies to applications, services, or web sites “designed and marketed for use in United States elementary and secondary educational institutions.” In addition, the complaint suggests that the pledge is violated because Google uses layered privacy policies (for its general purpose services and a more restrictive policy for its educational services) and educational websites related to its privacy policies (google.com/e ...

Several years ago, SIIA and the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) worked together with a number of Ed Tech companies to develop a Student Privacy Pledge, a voluntary effort by the industry to commit to good privacy practices regarding their collection and use student data.  President Obama endorsed the pledge and it has been instrumental in guiding the development of state student privacy legislation toward protecting privacy while fostering the use of student information for fulfilling the educational needs of students.  Recently, we marked the milestone of 300 companies signing on to the pledge.  This week, however, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) issued an attack on the pledge as containing loopholes in its fine print. Specifically, EFF takes issue with the definition of “student personal information” in the Pledge and the fact that the pledge only covers “school service providers.” These concerns are largely unfounded and ill-informed ...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Google for violation of the K-12 School Service Provider Pledge to Safeguard Student Privacy.  The FTC will assess the complaint on its merits and make a judgment one way or the other.  But, it is important to point out that the complaint contains some important misunderstandings about the student privacy pledge.

SIIA applauds the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers for adopting a set of privacy principles for vehicle technologies and services. These principles, released on Thursday November 13, are a responsible step toward protecting the information collected by connected cars, and they reflect an important movement of strong corporate commitments to data privacy. Data has become essential for improving auto safety, reducing traffic congestion, increasing auto efficiency and powering other advanced services for 21st Century drivers. By bolstering consumer confidence, these principles will help make certain these advancements can continue. They cover transparency, choice, respect for context, data minimization, de-identification, retention, data security, integrity, access and accountability. In particular, they put limits on the use of geolocation information for marketing purposes and provide consumers with access to collected information. These ... more