FTC Should School Privacy Advocates Who Falsely Claim Google Spied on Children

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy organization, submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission alleging that Google is spying on children and has violated the terms of the Student Privacy Pledge. As Daniel Castro explains in The Hill, this complaint is completely without merit—even the authors of the Student Privacy Pledge have denounced the allegations. Unfortunately, these types of groundless attacks could have serious consequences, scaring off tech companies from providing solutions to students, making school administrators second-guess attempt to use technology in the classroom, and driving companies away from voluntary pledges. The FTC should publicly and vocally dismiss this allegation, and take EFF to task for filing its baseless complaint.