Google Is Tracking You - To See if You’re Spreading the Coronavirus

Google tracks your movements to see if you’re going places you're not supposed to be going or staying put amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Google (GOOGL) - Get Report is tracking your movements to see if you’re going to the grocery store, the pharmacy, or a neighbor’s house, or if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing and staying put, and also to see if you have the coronavirus and are potentially spreading it. Alphabet-owned Google this week released preliminary reports showing movements within communities not just in the U.S. but across the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Community Mobility Report for the U.S., as of March 29, movement to retail and recreation areas - restaurants, cafes, movie theaters and the like - had decreased by 47%.

"Ultimately, understanding not only whether people are traveling, but also trends in destinations, can help officials design guidance to protect public health and essential needs of communities," according to a blog post on the topic. he community mobility report tracks trends in where people are, using location history from users' phones. It currently has data from 131 countries worldwide, drilling down into regions where deemed necessary such as states in the U.S. The reports review what has changed during the outbreak in terms of working from home, shelter-in-place and other policies aimed at flattening the curve.

The numbers not only reveal a startling shift in activity related to stay-at-home orders and outright lockdowns in countries and regions throughout the world, they also reveal the sheer tracking power Google has at its disposal, using location history on people’s mobile phones. The Washington Post reported last month that Google, Facebook (FB) - Get Report and other tech companies were in discussions with the federal government over how they can help fight the novel coronavirus with location data collected from people's phones.

The data, anonymous and aggregated, would track not only people who are venturing to places they shouldn’t be venturing to but also whether they are venturing too close to one another, and breaking the unwritten rule of social distancing to curb the virus’s spread. While potentially helpful in studying transmission trends for the virus, the technology and its use has already raised red flags among privacy experts, particularly as big tech companies are already under scrutiny over their privacy policies and the personal information they collect.

https://www.thestreet.com/technology/google-tracking-movements-coronavirus

Two children sue Google for allegedly collecting students' biometric data

The lawsuit says the search giant violated privacy laws with its educational tools.

Two children from Illinois are suing Google for allegedly collecting biometric data, including face scans, of millions of students through the search giant's software tools for classrooms. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a federal court in San Jose, California, is seeking class-action status. The children, known only as H.K. and J.C. in the complaint, are suing through their father, Clinton Farwell. Google is using its services to create face templates and "voiceprints" of children, the complaint says, through a program in which the search giant provides school districts across the country with Chromebooks and free access to G Suite for Education apps. Those apps include student versions of Gmail, Calendar and Google Docs.

The data collection would likely violate Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, which regulates facial recognition, fingerprinting and other biometric technologies in the state. The practice would also likely run afoul of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, a federal law that requires sites to get parental consent when collecting personal information from users who are under 13 years old. "Google has complete control over the data collection, use, and retention practices of the 'G Suite for Education' service, including the biometric data and other personally identifying information collected through the use of the service, and uses this control not only to secretly and unlawfully monitor and profile children, but to do so without the knowledge or consent of those children's parents," the lawsuit says.

The complaint is asking for damages of $1,000 for each member of the class for BIPA violations Google committed "negligently," or $5,000 each for each violation committed "intentionally or recklessly.'' The lawsuit underscores Google's dominance in American classrooms, which has only grown in recent weeks. Schools are depending more on the tech giant's educational tools as physical classes around the nation are canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As several states enact stay-at-home orders, usage of Google's tools has skyrocketed. Downloads of Google Classroom, which helps teachers manage classes online, have swelled to 50 million, making it the No. 1 education app on Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms. On Thursday, Google announced a partnership with California Gov. Gavin Newsom to donate 4,000 Chromebooks to students across the state.

The lawsuit isn't the first time Google has drawn criticism for its classroom efforts. In February, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas sued Google for allegedly violating COPPA through its educational platforms. The lawsuit accused Google of collecting information on students' locations, their passwords, what websites they've visited, what they've searched for on Google and YouTube, their contact lists and voice recordings. Google has also faced broader blowback for its handling of children's data. In September, the US Federal Trade Commission slapped the company with a record $170 million fine, as well as new requirements, for YouTube's violation of COPPA. In response, the video site made major changes to how it treats kids videos, including limiting the data it collects from those views.

https://www.cnet.com/news/two-children-sue-google-for-allegedly-collecting-students-biometric-data/

>>8690777

Harvested..already has a cutting started..interesting.