A lawsuit was filed April 7, 2025, accusing Google of harvesting personal data on students across the country. The lawsuit, titled Joel Schwarz et al. v. Google, alleges that the company has been collecting data and using it to build profiles for each student that can be used in the future for marketing purposes and more — all without their knowledge or parental consent.
Students in many public school systems are required to use Chromebooks to complete their classwork, along with a handful of Google-based tools like Google Docs, Classroom, etc. Any browser activity through Chrome is also easily monitored by the tech mogul. All of these sources provide avenues to funnel data into unique profiles for each individual.
Google is also accused of operating on the government's behalf, which would make the data acquisition a potential constitutional violation. More specifically, the lawsuit alleges this would fall under the Fourth Amendment that protects US citizens from unwarranted searches and seizures. It is also accused of violating a handful of other acts including the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the Federal Wiretap Act, as well as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Students who use Chromebooks are subject to a variety of potential sources that collect personal data—even fingerprint information. This data is harvested automatically and without consent of the children and parents. It's also possible for this data to leave Google's hands and make its way to third parties acting as customers of Google which, again, parents have no authorization over.
The biggest concern in this breach of privacy is the lack of consent from the parents and guardians. Students are required to use these tools and systems to complete schoolwork, and parents have no way in which they can deny the privacy guidelines outlined by Google for each system.
Heise has published the court documents for the case, known as case number 3:25-cv-03125, on their website, which confirmed the plaintiffs are looking for a few things. They not only want compensation for punitive damages with interest but also a class action certification and full jury trial. So far, Google has not offered an official response regarding the lawsuit.
