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The cost of the product is surely irrelevant here: If the product damages your life (in an unexpected way), you should be able to sue to recoup those damages.
by ronaldx 13y ago
The cost of the product is surely irrelevant here: If the product damages your life (in an unexpected way), you should be able to sue to recoup those damages.
In this case, presumably the individuals may have been signed up to Google Apps for Education without their direct consent (or, it was an unstated requirement of their courses to sign up).
Also note: companies have access to liability insurance to cover them for being sued out of existence. Google presumably have a budget for lawsuits.
- Tomdarkness 13y agoMy experience with Google Apps is when you create a new user the first time they log in they are presented with the T&Cs they have to agree to before they can use the account.
- prawn 13y agoIf this Apps for Education platform is targeted at children, are many unable to consent to terms perhaps?
- plg 13y agoalso (1) children in school may have no choice but to agree, and (2) just because you agree to something in a contract doesn't necessarily mean it's enforceable. For example there are some rights you can't sign away in a contract.
- svenkatesh 13y agoApps for Education targets Universities.
- dalke 13y agoQuoting from the article: "Apps for Education is used by K-12 schools and institutions of higher education throughout the world..." Go to the Apps for Education page at Google, select "Customers", choose "K12" and it lists 10 primary and secondary education school systems as profiled "customer stories". For example, "Saline Area Schools is a suburban/rural public school district of 5,450 students K-12 located in southeast Michigan, about 50 miles west of Detroit." ... "Encouraged by the success with faculty and staff, the Saline IT team will soon roll Google Apps out to their 3,200 students in grades 5-12." https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5AOHQcS-cAeODQ3MGVkNGEtNzJmNS00MTE5LTliZmEtZjNiZGRmODZiM2Fm/edit?pli=1 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5AOHQcS-cAeODQ3MGVkNGEtNzJm...
- svenkatesh 13y agoThis is the full list of places where they're used: http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/education/customers.html http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/education/customers.ht... Most are universities.
- dalke 13y agoThat is "not the full list". That is a list of "customer stories", and certainly a subset of the full list. In fact, it's the site I suggested you visit. Next, use the pull-down under "all types" to see that the three targets are "K12", "Organization", and "University".
- izzydata 13y agoThe problem seems to be that there actually haven't been any damages. Not a single person has been negatively affected by these targeted ads and nobody has had their personal information actually read. They have no chance with this lawsuit.