It’s recently come to light that Microsoft has been heavily funding lobbying in Massachusetts with the aim of having Google Apps for Education outlawed for student use. What they say they’re interested in is the privacy of students- they’re “worried” about Google having access to so much student data.
Right.
At the same time, Bill Gates, through his foundation, has thrown $115 million dollars at the effort of collecting student data. And by student data, it’s worth understanding that they’re collecting everything: Names, addresses, ethnicity, grades, disabilities, pictures- everything. It’s not even anonymized at all.
Want the kicker? They’re selling the data to third-party for-profit companies.
And there’s no opt out.