Pearson

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Pearson

Basic information
Founded	1998
Legal Structure	Subsidiary
Industry	Education, Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
Official website	https://www.pearson.com/

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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 Pearson category.

Widespread test errors (2012)

Main article: 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

This is a list of the company's product lines with articles on this wiki.

• Example product line one (release date): Short summary of the product's incidents.
• Example product line two (release date):

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See also

Link to relevant theme articles or companies with similar incidents.

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References

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