Consumer Rights Wiki - User contributions [en]

Talk:Pearson

2025-09-17T23:15:02Z

Nemoresearch: /* Expansion of article */ new section

== Expansion of article ==

I've started out with some very brief key points since the article definitely needs to exist. I bought a 100$ book for a uni course since you otherwise cant even see your homework and they seemed a little sketchy with DRM but not like i had a choice, however then i tried using their software and its the worst technical experience ive had since learning vim. to prevent piracy you cant ctrl+p and save as pdf, every page is a separate pdf that has to load as you navigate, but wait there is more. you cannot use ctrl+f to search, they have a built in search function (that doesnt work properly) for instance trying to "COPY" the word "Exercises" gives you "E xerci s es" and that includes the built in(!) "search selection" and "translate" functions. just to give an example:

Original ENGlish text:

E arly i n t he sevent eent h cent ur y, t he G er man mat hemat i ci an Johannes Kepl er analyzed

a vast number of ast ronomi cal obser vat i ons made by D ani sh ast ronomer Tycho B r ahe

and concl uded t hat t he pl anet s must move around t he sun i n el li pt i cal or bi t s. H e di dn’t

know w hy. Fi f t y year s l at er, t he E ngl i sh mat hemat i ci an and physi ci st I saac New ton

answered t hat quest i on.

Now. I dont understand a fucking word of that but thankfully i can translate it to danish:

Danish:

E arly i n t the begivenhed eent h cent ur y, t g er man mat hemat i ci an Johannes Kepl er analyseret

et stort antal ast ronomi cal obser vat i ons lavet af D ani sh ast ronomer Tycho B r ahe

og det er konstateret, at han skal bevæge sig rundt om solen i n el li pt i cal eller bi t s.

ved hende. Fem f t i år s l at er, t e ngl i sh mat hemat i ci an og fysik ci st I saac New ton

svarede på hat quest i on.

Ah, much better. Now, this had me intrigued, there is no way anyone hasnt noticed something this major before so i started searching and it turns out Pearson is part of a conglamorate with 180 years of mergers and aquisitions. and they have M&A'd a LOT. To the point where Pearson PLC, their billion dollar parent company, is deeply ingrained in everything related to education in the US, many of their books are used worldwide in universities. Conveniently they are involved in both making tests and the educational material for said tests and the tests the teacher has to take to become a teacher and they spend millions lobbying

according to

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48998789

in 2019 they decided to focus mainly on ebooks since they are easier to update and cheaper to make... and they can insert drm and make older books obsolete even faster. unsurprisingly they have gotten continually worse and worse with their focus shifting only towards enshittification which means firing teachers and competent staff in favor of outsourcing to craigslist (no, really) and they have contractors making test questions, many of which are full of mistakes. like problems not accepting 2+2=4 as an answer because the real answer had spaces between symbols and things of that nature. their customer support consists of an ai chatbot which just so happens also to be one of their new policies: AI first. So in summary you force students to pay $100 to access something in every way inferior to a .pdf, littered with errors and if you want help with it you first have to fight to even contact a person. its literally just exploitation, they have downscaled everything slapped ai on top of it and are raking in money with no care for how their actions are harming others.

in 2022 they got really excited about the prospect of maybe making even more money from NFTs and announced they would make every book an NFT so they could also make money from people reselling books. its as scummy of a business as you can imagine and people have known for well over a decade.

Im aware this is against the editorial guidelines so i dont intend to add it to the article and im honestly not sure how to approach it. i welcome advice on how best to communicate that they have shown major signs they dont care at all about consumers. they have a BBB score of 1.1/5, the lowest being 1. their trust pilot rating is 1.8/5 and just reading through comments is a clear indicator its not isolated incidents. everywhere i read is full of horror stories but its difficult for me to find good examples because of just how many problems there are

in terms of single sources something like

Attick, Dennis, and Deron Boyles. “Pearson Learning and the Ongoing Corporatization of Public Education.” ''Journal of Thought'', vol. 50, no. 1–2, 2016, pp. 5–19. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/90010507</nowiki>. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.

is good but i also dont want to just rewrite already well known info [[User:Nemoresearch|Nemoresearch]] ([[User talk:Nemoresearch|talk]]) 23:15, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Pearson

2025-09-17T18:20:18Z

Nemoresearch: /* References */ added some of the references ive been using

{{CompanyCargo
|Founded=1998
|Industry=Education, Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
|ParentCompany=Pearson plc
|Type=Subsidiary
|Website=https://www.pearson.com/
|Description=Largest publishing company in higher education, with focus on proprietary eBooks, online educational software and test administration
}}
{{Ph-C-Int}}

==Consumer-impact summary==
Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct

*User Freedom. Their use of DRM and attempts at preventing piracy degrades the user experience for legitimate users, restricting copying and pasting from eBooks, only loading a single page at a time, restricting printing. Due to their partnerships with universities, many students are left with no choice but to buy access to books on their platform without any alternatives
*User Privacy
*Business Model, since 2019 they have shifted their focus to eBooks that are frequently updated thereby making older versions obsolete. They also develop AI tools to assist with learning
*Market Control. Largest company in higher education with influence over test administration, teacher licensing, educational software, eBooks, grading, guidelines

==Incidents==
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the [[:Category:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|{{PAGENAME}} category]].
===Widespread test errors (''2012'')===
{{Main|link to the main CR Wiki article}}
students complained about nonsensical test questions and tests were found to have major errors. around 30 errors were found in test questions.

Outsourcing of work and craigslist hiring

Excessive influence over education

lack of customer support

pearson has a score of 1.8 on trustpilot, and 1.1 on Better Business Bureau

Lack of transparency in testing

making students, including those underage, sign NDAs prior to test administration

==Products==
{{Ph-C-P}}

==See also==
{{Ph-C-SA}}

==References==
{{reflist}}https://www.wiredacademic.com/2011/10/pearson-draws-criticism-from-new-york-to-texas-justified-or-unjustified/

https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/get-the-facts/corporate-myth-fact-030116.pdf

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1glwk0/pearson_seems_to_control_everything_in_education/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/05/pearson-shareholders-reject-pay-revolt-john-fallon
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

Pearson

2025-09-17T17:41:01Z

Nemoresearch: /* Widespread test errors (2012) */

Pearson

2025-09-17T17:31:04Z

Nemoresearch: short overview of incidents

{{CompanyCargo
|Founded=1998
|Industry=Education, Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
|ParentCompany=Pearson plc
|Type=Subsidiary
|Website=https://www.pearson.com/
|Description=Largest publishing company in higher education, with focus on proprietary eBooks, online educational software and test administration
}}
{{Ph-C-Int}}

==Consumer-impact summary==
Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct

* User Freedom. Their use of DRM and attempts at preventing piracy degrades the user experience for legitimate users, restricting copying and pasting from eBooks, only loading a single page at a time, restricting printing. Due to their partnerships with universities, many students are left with no choice but to buy access to books on their platform without any alternatives
* User Privacy
* Business Model, since 2019 they have shifted their focus to eBooks that are frequently updated thereby making older versions obsolete. They also develop AI tools to assist with learning
* Market Control. Largest company in higher education with influence over test administration, teacher licensing, educational software, eBooks, grading, guidelines

==Incidents==
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the [[:Category:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|{{PAGENAME}} category]].
===Widespread test errors (''2012'')===
{{Main|link to the main CR Wiki article}}
students complained about nonsensical test questions and tests were found to have major errors. around 30 errors were found in test questions.

Hiring ad for examiners on craigslist

Excessive influence over education

lack of customer support

pearson has a score of 1.8 on trustpilot, and 1.1 on Better Business Bureau

Lack of transparency in testing

making students, including those underage, sign NDAs prior to test administration

==Products==
{{Ph-C-P}}

==See also==
{{Ph-C-SA}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

Pearson

2025-09-17T16:53:27Z

Nemoresearch: page created