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Microsoft is once again under scrutiny in the European Union, but after all, Teams isn’t to blame. Austrian advocacy group Noyb filed two complaints The group has filed suit against Microsoft over the use of the company’s 365 Education software in schools and children’s privacy. The group has also previously filed lawsuits against other major tech companies, including OpenAI, Meta and Spotify.
Neub alleges that Microsoft 365 Education “installs cookies that analyze user behavior, collect browser data, and are used for advertising, according to Microsoft documentation,” without the schools’ knowledge. The advocacy group also claims that Microsoft has been “consistently vague” about how it handles student data, potentially allowing it to covertly track kids.
“The analysis of data flows is very worrying. It appears that Microsoft 365 Education tracks users regardless of their age,” Noyb’s data protection lawyer Felix Mikolaš said in a statement.. “This practice could affect hundreds of thousands of pupils and students across the EU and EEA. It is time for the authorities to finally act and effectively safeguard the rights of minors.”
Noyb also claims that Microsoft is pushing its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) responsibilities onto schools without providing any access to or information about their privacy policies or data collection. “Microsoft has all the important information about data processing in its software, but blames schools when it comes to exercising their rights,” Maartje de Graaf, another data protection lawyer at Noyb, said in a statement. “Schools have no way to comply with their transparency and information obligations.”
The GDPR sets out strict guidelines for protecting the data of minors, with a focus on additional protection for individuals, transparency and accountability. Violations of the GDPR can result in fines of up to 20 million euros ($22 million) or 4% of a company’s previous global annual turnover, whichever is greater.