SafeGov Calls for Greater Controls Over the Use of Google Services in European Schools

The low cost of Chromebooks coupled with the ‘free’ use of Google Apps and their in-built capacity for collaborative work threatens to revolutionize computing in schools. But SafeGov is warning that it may come at the unacceptable cost of the privacy of a vulnerable section of society: schoolchildren.

SafeGov is not the first to question the acceptability of Google Apps under European privacy laws. In January 2012 a report from the Norwegian Data Protection Inspectorate ruled that the EU-US safe harbor agreement does not adequately guarantee protection against the US PATRIOT Act; and that without further specific guarantees, the use of cloud services such as Google does not comply with Norway’s Personal Data Act, 2000.

SOURCE: infosecurity-magazine.com