Parents Double Down on Suit Accusing Google of Mining Children's Data
Parents who allege Google's education products secretly harvest mass amounts of student information and data without knowledge or consent continued hurling accusations at the technology giant.
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In a court document Thursday, the parents requested a federal court continue considering their lawsuit. Filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, the document in case 3:25-cv-03125 argues that Google has violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), among other federal and state laws (see 2504100003).
"Consistent with its invasive data practices ... Google is hostile to the rights of students and parents, including their right to access the courts," the parents said. "And Google’s theory of consent rests entirely [on] a mistake of law: that statutes that enhance children’s privacy instead undermine it, specifically, by letting a private company take and use all manner of personal information from students -- as long as the company has obtained consent from the students’ schools."
But the law doesn't support this "radical" position, the parents said. "Families may not be stripped of their basic rights in exchange for the education to which they are legally entitled," they added. "By attending school as is their right and duty, children and their parents do not relinquish their right to decide what personal information may be collected about them and how it may be used. This is not, and cannot be, the new cost of education."
Google, however, has said the allegations are baseless, as the parents haven't alleged invasion of privacy. As such, it has asked the court to dismiss the suit (see 2507150045).