The threat from Google to parents of school children would be ominous enough if Google were just another company, but it is not.
If further proof were needed, a recently leaked video shows that the company’s politics are scarily and oppressively monolithic. Company executives at the meeting were openly political and unabashedly leftist in their orientation. To much applause, one employee attributed President Trump’s victory in 2016 to “organized campaigns of disinformation aimed at low information voters.”
From Google’s perspective, Springfield, Missouri, would make a good Beta site in any likely reeducation campaign. If that sounds a bit conspiratorial, a report by Missouri Education Watchdog makes one wonder.
“What is reportedly happening with Springfield Missouri Public School’s use of Google Drive offers a rare glimpse into Google’s potential to collect data,” reports the Watchdog.
The Watchdog continues, “School-issued student Google accounts connect to Google Drive which can allow for the ability to Auto-Sync devices to Auto-Save passwords, browsing history and other digital data points from numerous devices used by a single user. For students in SPS this could include digital data from non-school related accounts.”
A July 2018 Fox 5 KRBK news story tells the story of the Ely family and their battle to get at the truth of what has been happening. It is best read in full:
“The Elys claim that the SPS Google Drive, given to all SPS employees and students, automatically begins to store information from any device the drive is accessed on. This includes browser history, but also personal information such as files and passwords. They add that even if you log out of the drive, it stays running and recording in the background.
After bringing their concerns forward this past May, they say that despite the evidence presented, no serious action has been taken on behalf of the district.
‘They have a lot of evidence and have had it since December, and we have not heard one word from any of them,’ said Dianne Ely.
With more searching, the Elys have now found even more sensitive information that’s been stored to their daughter’s Google Drive, including 139 passwords to both her and her husband’s different accounts and also voice recordings of both her and her children.
‘My voice to text was being stored as well as any search my kids did, and I could say ‘sure my daughter was searching on Google,’ but my phone uses Safari. When I used my texting app on my iPhone, it recorded my voice, as well as typing out the words and saving it on my Google Drive,’ said Brette Hay, the Ely’s daughter and a teacher at Pershing Middle School.
The Elys hope with this new evidence, not only will parents, employees and students take action to check what private information of their own could be stored on the drive, but that the school district will also take the appropriate steps to make their Google Drive safe.”
What action Springfield Public Schools will take remains to be seen, but parents beware, Springfield cannot be the only school district Google has infiltrated.