AP reports:
Mississippi’s attorney general is once again tangling with Google, alleging it is illegally violating student privacy.
Attorney General Jim Hood sued the California-based computer giant Friday in Lowndes County Chancery Court. Hood, a Democrat, says Google is breaking Mississippi consumer protection law by selling ads using data from services it provides to schools.
Read more on WTOK.
I wonder whether there are other states that might also have laws that would prevent that, or why Mississippi is not joining forces with other state attorneys general on this issue/allegation. Is there really something so unusual about Mississippi’s law?
If anyone has a copy of the complaint, please share it. I’d love to read this one. The Sun Herald has additional coverage on the case, including:
The lawsuit, filed in Lowndes County Chancery Court, accuses Google of failing to live up to its pledge and says the company didn’t disclose the type of information it collects, maintains and uses, nor how the information is shared with third parties.
Hood said his office did tests that confirmed users’ information was being mined. Hood, who said his own son was affected, said Google may have been building long-term profiles on the students or selling the information to advertisers.
He admitted it’s impossible to know exactly what student information Google is collecting or how Google is using it, although he said in a conference call he hoped to learn more through the discovery process.