Google Classroom and

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Am I being unreasonable to be concerned about children having to use Google Classroom at school, being unable to submit homework in hardcopy form (the jotters in which they do their work) and having to submit a photo of this work instead?

Setting aside the issues of having to use tech to do this, my main concern is being forced to give away so much of my child's information to a private company. Not only could this be hacked but the level of profiling they can do of us and our children based on this, what their intelligence is, IQ etc which will be sold or at the very least used to advertise to them as they go through life - army recruitment for kids who aren't so academic and so on and so on.

Why can't they just keep their homework between them and their teacher?

Recently retired teacher here. GOogle Classroom became a thing for our school in 2019-20 and it made teaching and responding to pupil work possible during lockdown itself. With it online lessons were possible, pupils could ask for help - it was an excellent tool. After lockdown its use continued and although personally I preferred marking a set of actual books with homework in, it continues to be useful for students as a quick way to upload their work and as a tool for communication.
I can't comment on the GDPR aspects but can see the practical pros and cons of its use.

I do understand its use over lockdown. But that time is over.

It amazes me that nobody is concerned about the harvesting of data which will absolutely be used to manipulate our children. We worry enough about election interference as it is but this is just huge, and people are indifferent. Either inured or don't understand.

What data do you think will be taken from homework (genuinely)?

What information is being given away?

I’m not sure about the data but as a secondary teacher I like hard copies of homework. They are easier for marking etc.

Just use a fake name, birthday etc and tell the teacher what it is if you are worried.

All students and staff have internal school emails allocated to them and it is using these that students and staff are able to communicate via Google Classroom. Student and staff email addresses have to be deleted when those persons leave the school. GDPR regulations and restrictions were strengthened considerably about 6-8 years ago and data breaches are flagged up and treated very seriously. While this may not prevent the harvesting of data (I am no expert, obviously) I would hope that students and staff are as well protected as possible.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Privacy-in-the-age-of-psychological-targeting.-Matz-Appel/4cd8cfd088ee415b2e22f53934db966e854c74ed

CA's data analysis methods were based on those originally patented by Facebook.[75] While Facebook did not publicly disclose the accuracy of this method, it was studied by Michal Kosinski. In 2008, Kosinski joined the Psychometrics Centre of Cambridge University where he then developed with his colleagues a profiling system using general online data, Facebook likes, and smartphone data.[76][77] He showed that with a limited number of "likes", people can be analysed better than friends or relatives can do and that individual psychological targeting is a powerful tool to influence people.[76] Psychological targeting describes the practice of extracting people's psychological profiles from their digital footprints (e.g., their Facebook Likes, Tweets or credit card records) in order to influence their attitudes, emotions or behaviors through psychologically informed interventions at scale.[78] It is defined by two interrelated components: (1) psychological profiling refers to the automated assessment of psychological traits and states from digital footprints, and (2) psychologically informed interventions describe the attempt to influence people's attitudes, emotions or behaviors by speaking to their fundamental psychological motivations.[79] Research in fields such as psychology, marketing and health communication has shown that interventions aimed at influencing and changing human behavior are most effective when they are tailored to individuals’ psychological states and traits.[80]
A large amount of data can be extracted from the record of the trace of almost every step we take online — a digital footprint of human behavior.[80] Whether it is our Facebook profile, Tweets, Google searches or GPS sensor, our digital footprints create extensive records of our personal habits and preferences.[80] CA would collect data on voters using sources such as demographics, consumer behaviour, Internet activity, and other public and private sources. According to The Guardian, CA used psychological data derived from millions of Facebook users, largely without users' permission or knowledge
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica