Feb. 20, 2020 6:14 pm ET
The state of New Mexico is suing Alphabet Inc.'s Google of children's privacy and claims that Google is spying on young, unsuspecting children to obtain personal data. According to the lawsuit, vital data such as site visits, site searches, physical location, and contact lists are a few of the items Google is collecting information on. Alphabet, Inc. has previously paid a fine to the FTC for a similar violation with YouTube. New Mexico is trying to protect the students and their privacy, by claiming that parental consent is required for this information to be shared, but believes this is not the case.
This topic is interesting because it protects the rights of the children. They log in to complete school work/research but their steps are being traced, without parents consent. Even if the parents unknowingly gave consent, it is not understood that they will be spied on, but rather simply completing a school related task.
This strategy is invasive to the unsuspected student and should be discontinued immediately. There are other ways to obtain this information. Marketing to children can be done through other means or with the parent's complete knowledge.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-mexico-sues-google-over-childrens-data-privacy-11582240443?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2
I find this blog very interesting as it relates a lot to the political/legal aspect of the external environment. This reminds companies to do legal things which do not violate others rights so that they are not involved in public problems and lawsuits like the one Google is involved in. Lawsuits bring public distrust which ruins companies reputation and can eventually lead to the decline of a company.
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