noyb has scored another win in its proceedings against Microsoft 365 Education: The Austrian data protection authority (DSB) has decided that the company illegally installed cookies on the devices of a pupil without consent. According to Microsoft’s own documentation, these cookies analyse user behaviour, collect browser data and are used for advertising. Microsoft now has four weeks to comply and cease the use of tracking cookies.
That’s cool! I wish Microsoft were fined though. Any money we can take off of them for not following the law, no matter how small it may be in the big picture, is a win in my eyes.
lmueller@feddit.org 9 hours ago
How about we simply use open source software in schools instead of supporting Microsoft in its virtual monopoly, spending unnecessary amounts of money on it and also exposing children to tracking?
It certainly wouldn’t hurt digital sovereignty in Europe and would at least show the next generation that there are alternatives. It has been known for years that Microsoft and Google want to get into schools to bind the next generation to their ecosystem.
(Of course this is still a „small“ win)
ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
I believe right now there are discussions about it on Europe to adopt more FOSS projects. The biggest problems I see happening here is who effectively maintains this, as well who gives the money (and incentives) to keep the projects alive. As of now the German government does have a program for the incentives (do not recall if they do the people’s part). Hopefully it becomes more wide and clear how this will be going forward.
Also, I do not think it would be such a small win. If anything is very significant. If you can change at that stage the tools used, eventually propagates further into the working force at some point.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 6 hours ago
How much maintenance does a word processor need? The fact that its free IS the financial incentive. You could install mint and libre office on every computer in a school and it would basically be a seamless transition and most people would barely even notice.