EdTech Company: Court Should Drop Parents' Suit Over Children’s Privacy Violations
Instructure, an educational technology firm, asked a federal court to dismiss a privacy suit against it, alleging it has federal and state authorization for its actions. The suit comes from a group of parents who claim their school-aged children’s data was collected and sold without their knowledge or consent.
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The company said, “A group of parents and advocates dissatisfied that their schools have chosen to adopt education software -- and perhaps equally dissatisfied that federal statutes permit that -- try another route [besides lobbying Congress for change]: suing education technology providers through ill-fitting privacy claims.”
Instructure also claims that the complaint mostly states what educational technology products can do and what personal information they could interact with instead of actual allegations of harm. Federal laws like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) permit collection of student data without parental consent, it added.
“Companies like Instructure are not violating privacy or security expectations by operating as a service provider to schools," whose activities federal and state governments regulate, it said. “Plaintiffs may not like that the current laws give schools this right, but Plaintiffs cannot effectuate a legislative overhaul through a backdoor lawsuit against those providers.”
California and Maryland parents filed suit in case 25-02711 March 27 on behalf of their children, alleging Instructure monetized the personal information of users, who are mostly school-aged children, without their consent (see 2503280041). Filed in the U.S. District Court for Central California, the class-action lawsuit includes claims of violations of the Fourth Amendment, 14th Amendment, the California Invasion of Privacy Act and California's Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and Unfair Competition Law, among other laws.