Final Decision on Chromebook Case in Denmark

Schools+laptops is absolutely crazy.<p>The amount of incompetence is beyond reason.<p>My daughter(12)&#x27;s keyboard got broken, now she is afraid she wont be able to take her exam with an external keyboard because there is a spyware extension they use called &#x27;safe exam browser&#x27; that might block her computer when she plugs the keyboard.<p>Most of the kids are just using it to snapchat during class.<p>I will honestly prefer to just ban all tech from schools.

This article advocates for Linux (Chromebook is already Linux) on refurbished hardware (a random mix of old laptops in a large-scale deployment lol) and a laundry list of other &quot;technology solutions&quot; which would be, obviously, impossible for a school system to smoothly maintain or even deploy.<p>I&#x27;m not sure privacydad has ever deployed or maintained an IT department. A school system is very complex.<p>For what they offer - Chromebooks are actually very good. My kids&#x27; school computers are probably better than most of the corporate-issue windows laptops I&#x27;ve ever had. Google docs&#x2F;classroom are also very good compared to grab-bag of apps my kids have to use.<p>--- (general computers-in-school rant) ---<p>The clear answer is to get computers <i>out</i> of schools as much as possible! I know they won&#x27;t so if you happen to work on this kind of software - PLEASE advocate for shipping better software!<p>My kids aren&#x27;t even taught how to type but are expected to put together slide shows and things every other week.<p>The testing and assignments done on the computer are <i>full</i> of UX issues like missing scroll bars and confusing + inconsistent &lt;form&gt;s - Some tests allow you to go back and read the material, some don&#x27;t, some lose your answers in-between, etc.<p>Every year there is massive churn of &quot;apps&quot; the school district was corrupted into buying to replace last year&#x27;s crop of junk.

Public sector IT in Denmark has been in a weird tug of war between those eager to sell out our data to American companies and those who naively think Ubuntu and LibreOffice can realistically replace the public sector&#x27;s dependency on Microsoft.<p>We need to keep our data in Denmark and become less dependent on American companies (and especially Microsoft&#x2F;Google). But the change needs to be led by IT professionals who care about usability and know better than forcing Linux and LibreOffice down the throat of elderly office workers.<p>One approach is to identify the business processes they are using Microsoft&#x2F;Google apps for and then offer the entire process through well-designed web apps hosted in Denmark.

The real problem I saw with Chromebooks used in educational settings was not Google, but the extensions from sketchy third-parties forced on students by IT policy with unlimited permissions to vaccum up their data and sell to the highest bidder

Current HN Title:<p>&gt; Danish schools will no longer be allowed to use Chromebooks and Google platforms<p>The <i>ACTUAL</i> Title of article, and leading paragraphs, may (sadly) tell a slightly different story:<p>&gt; Final Decision on Chromebook Case in Denmark<p>&gt; 03 Feb, 2024<p>&gt; This week saw a conclusion on the Danish Chromebook case. The result, long-awaited by father and privacy activist Jesper Graugaard, shows that the Danish Data Protection Authority has issued an injunction regarding the tracking of children&#x27;s personal data via Chromebook and Google platforms in schools.<p>&gt; From 1 August 2024 onwards, Danish schools will no longer be allowed to enable Chromebooks and Google platforms to collect students&#x27; personal data for processing. Each municipality will need to give an indication of how they will comply to this injunction by 1 March 2024.

What&#x27;s the problem with our children doing the entirety of their learning in a data collection box that aims to bombard them with advertisement and get them used to an ecosystem for lifelong ad targeting?<p>Now seriously, if Chromebooks didn&#x27;t exist, couldn&#x27;t you imagine a Black Mirror episode around this very theme?

This headline is misleading. According to the article schools CAN still use Chromebooks but they cannot enable the tracking functionality on them.<p>&quot;From 1 August 2024 onwards, Danish schools will no longer be allowed to enable Chromebooks and Google platforms to collect students&#x27; personal data for processing.&quot;

&gt; For activist Graugaard, the decision comes as a relief. He began his crusade against Chromebooks in school in his home town Elsinor over four years ago. While this week&#x27;s report makes no reference to Jesper&#x27;s initiatives, it is clear that this injunction could not have been issued without his tireless and sometimes solitary activism.<p>Sounds like some crazy person just screwed up education for everyone.

I think it’s too bad that the One Laptop Per Child initiative didn’t make it. I think they had a lot of great ideas. Hardware and software tailored for learning, designed with the user and classroom in mind.

What an excellent outcome. Well done Jesper Graugaard. Like Alan Bates, those fighting for common sense and decency around technology are gaining strength and winning victories despite the fear and reluctance of institutions to challenge big-tech.

My impression is that Kommunernes Landsforening (the national association of municipalities) will work together with Google Denmark to find a solution.<p>In the mean time (till August) schools can continue using Google WorkSpace.

&gt; It would be good to see checks on Google&#x27;s dominance in schools, currently achieved via attractively priced hardware and free proprietary platforms built for this purpose.<p>Is this an excuse to use Windows on schools? I mean... if you use expensive hardware on closed and paid proprietary platforms, then that problem goes away.

In general this is a good decision. Google does not need to collect all that data and should provide an education package that protects the children&#x27;s data. However this will probably just means that Microsoft now has a mandated monopoly for the foreseeable future.

Nice, now force some linux distro like ubuntu and also ban microsoft&amp;adobe software too

The title of this entry doesn&#x27;t reflect what the the ruling says, it needs editing.

That&#x27;s not what the article nor the judgement say though...

Chromebooks are very well done technically. The &quot;only&quot; thing you would need to do, is un-google them. But then they don&#x27;t work anymore ...

My son who will be in first grade next year (currently he’s in K) received form the dept of education a chromebook. Im kind of horrified to be honest.

From the point of Google, what&#x27;s the point of collecting students data?

Maybe Framework has a opportunity here. With his ethical ethos it can fit.

Chromebooks are basically portable thin terminals, everything is and will be tracked server side.<p>There is no way to really check if Google, or any other modern timesharing provider is behaving as expected.

Clifford Stoll made a very entertaining argument against computers in the classroom in his 1999 book &quot;High Tech Heretic&quot;.

Is there a link somewhere to a webpage of the official Danish report or ruling? Press release?<p>Why is this all reports via ppl in LinkedIn?

Apple could have won the education market if they would have made a plastic ipad for $100.

They wanted to give them computer, but handed a data vacuum cleaner by ad company. Why not add a pack of cigarettes as well?

Notes about the &quot;Turn on Linux&quot; button that&#x27;s <i>still</i> greyed out for students: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;westurner.github.io&#x2F;hnlog&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;westurner.github.io&#x2F;hnlog&#x2F;</a> ctrl-f <i>&quot;Turn on Linux&quot;</i><p>Students cannot use Chromebooks to Linux, Python, or Git.<p>Google Colab requires internet access to run a notebook.<p>JupyterLite doesn&#x27;t yet have &quot;GitBash&quot; in a terminal in WASM; though Chrome does now support local filesystem access for notebooks and data.<p>VScode + Containers or no deal.