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What I find far more... something than FERPA being described as "an obscure law," is how brazen and obvious Google is about breaking it. If Google is a "School
by MikeNomad 11y ago
What I find far more... something than FERPA being described as "an obscure law," is how brazen and obvious Google is about breaking it.
If Google is a "School Official," their FERPA obligations do not stop at any point short of/when operating in that capacity.
Further, the idea that they can somehow "switch hats," and somehow maintain discrete sets of both FERPA and non-FERPA behaviors is at best naive, and at worst a conspiracy to commit various felonies.
The money shot of the article: EPIC didn't have standing when they filed their lawsuit, not that they were wrong with regard to laws being broken. With that, I hope entire school districts of parents with school age children file suit.
- tamana 11y agoThe judicial branch's abuse of "standing" to refuse to hear cases is one of the great injustices in USA. This was a huge deal in the USA PATRIOT domestic spying cases, where courts refused to hear lawsuits about spying, because plaintiffs couldn't prove they were being spied on before they won the right to collect evidence, because it was illegal for libraries/banks/IT companies disclose the spying!
- themartorana 11y agoI completely agree. In civil suits it may make sense, but when someone brings up a possible violation of federal law by another party, they shouldn't have to be harmed directly, they're helping prevent their fellow citizens from being harmed by someone or something breaking established law. It's really sad.
- fixermark 11y agoMost privacy-related school laws are "obscure" from the point of view of mainstream press. The average American does not care to the level of granularity needed to even raise the question of whether Google (a company many people trust with their private email accounts) is a trustworthy steward of private student information.