There might be many cheap Chromebooks for sale in Denmark this summer (article in Danish)
Schools have to prove that there isn’t being collected data on the kids. A ton of data is being collected all the time using ChromeOS. That it took so long to ban these in schools is the insane part of this story.
But what is the alternative?? Don’t school offices use windows and doesn’t windows also collect data?
What if I told you, there’s an operating system that doesn’t do that?
No I know. But is Linux really an option that you can force onto the public? I like it myself but I don’t see it being used by people who just want things to work out of the box
It’s a great option for schools. It’s free. It runs on low cost hardware. It reduces e-waste. It promotes a deeper understanding of IT. It promotes awareness of privacy issues, etc. Obviously, it requires more knowledgeable staff but it’s also not black magic. A few hours of instruction and you can set up one of the user friendly distros like a pro.
I personally think a problem with that is not every teacher is gonna be able to learn and understand it. Also, what happens when a teacher runs into a problem and accidentally breaks their setup? Or a student is somehow able to run sudo rm rf * despite some IT department trying to block access to commands like that?
As much as I’d love to see a Linux distro being used as a school’s operating system of choice, I think it’d be a nightmare trying to make sure all the staff know how it works, having to teach kids who have never used it what not to do, and making sure any weird software with almost no testing with WINE or Proton necessary for the school works.I know pretty much none of my teachers throughout highschool besides maybe a couple would be able to handle running Linux without breaking things. Though, I’m sure European teachers are better in general, so maybe they’d be able to handle it.
Most schools in India use Ubuntu or BOSS (Debian fork).
Linux can work out of the box. Most people use a browser and some sort of word processor. Mozilla and libre office are the FOSS options.
Most Danish schools use Windows. I take it that they’re using a version that does not collect these data - or at least they don’t sell it on.
That said, some kind of Linux would be optimal. Datatilsynet might be pointing fingers at ChromeOS without realizing that Windows does the same, just more covertly.
Having be forced to go to school and then be forced to become a data point for big corporations sounds so dystopian.
It’s not even about selling it on to others in this case:
Auto Translated:
The conclusion of the Danish Data Protection Authority’s decision is that there is authority to pass on the students’ information for the purpose of providing the services, improving the security and reliability of the services, communication with e.g. the municipalities and compliance with legal obligations.
At the same time, however, the assessment is that the Folkeskole Act does not sufficiently clearly authorize the municipalities to pass on the students’ information for the maintenance and improvement of the Google Workspace for Education service, ChromeOS and the Chrome browser, or for measuring the performance and development of new functions and services in ChromeOS and the Chrome browser.
Therefore, the Danish Data Protection Authority gives an order to the municipalities to bring the processing in line with the rules by ensuring that there is authorization for all the processing that takes place. This can happen, for example, by:
- That the municipalities no longer pass on personal data to Google for these purposes. This will likely require Google to develop a technical option for the data streams in question to be intercepted.
- That Google itself refrains from processing the information for these purposes.
- That the Danish Parliament provides a sufficiently clear legal basis for disclosure for these purposes.
