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Opt Out of Google for Education Additional Services, like YouTube

According to Google for Education, districts are REQUIRED to obtain parental consent BEFORE these services are available to students. {Enter your district here} are in VIOLATION of this policy as required by federal laws that protect sensitive student data. Send a message to district leadership that parents are paying attention, and we care about our children's privacy.

Ready to take action?

COMMUNITY LEAD - PLEASE UPDATE THE GOOGLE FORM FOR YOUR DISTRICT AND PASTE IT ABOVE!!!

Why This Action Matters

[PLEASE BE SURE TO ALSO EDIT THE GOOGLE FORM THAT CAPTURES INFORMATION FROM PARENTS WHO CHOOSE TO OPT OUT AND ATTACH IT BELOW}


In September of 2024, Google notified all Google for Education admins of Terms of Service Policy (TOS) changes that would become active in March of 2025. (Read about that change here). These Google for Education TOS changes are the result of federal laws (COPPA) and an FTC brief that prohibit student data collection without obtained parental consent. In order to comply with the law, Google’s updated TOS agreement states that Additional Services must be disabled for all students under 18 unless parental consent is obtained. 

In the months that followed, Lexington, Arlington, Westborough and other districts in the state, removed "additional services" from student accounts in an effort to protect student data and to remain in compliance with federal laws and Google's Terms of Service. 

Our district has failed to act, so we are acting for them. Our goal is to collect {chose the number of student opts out that you will collect before informing the district}, and once that goal is reached, we will supply the list of parents who have opted their children out to the district.  BY COMPLETING THE GOOGLE FORM, YOU ARE OPTING OUT OF GOOGLE FOR EDUCATION ADDITIONAL SERVICE FOR YOUR CHILD. 

A note about consent: An “opt out” paradigm does not support effective consent. Consent must be fully informed, actually voluntary—meaning parents can say no without consequence—and communicated by the parent, which means a parent can’t agree by simply failing to opt out, especially when it’s tied to their child’s (compulsory) education. 

Why opting out is important: 
  • Protect your child's sensitive personal information from being collected by Google
  • Protect your child from targeted ads on Google platforms
  • Send a message to the district that we care and are paying attention
  • Force the district to act sooner in transferring videos used for lessons on to the Google platform (if more parents opt out, teachers will need to accommodate those students now instead of on their own timeline)

You can also email {superintendent} at {superintendent's email address} and the school committee at {school committee email address}.