Ever since the introduction of Google Apps for Education (GAFE) into our school district, nothing has been the same for staff and students. Many students and teachers have used the free cloud-based tools, like Drive, Gmail, and Classroom provided by search engine giant, Google. However, as the adage goes, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Or so you would think.

The implementation of the GAFE program into Frederick County Public Schools occurred around the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. All students currently enrolled in FCPS has an account associated with their names. Does Google collect all information and use it for its own nefarious purposes? Maybe, but probably not. 

In early 2014, Google was the target of an allegation by a group of California plaintiffs represented by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), who accused Google of datamining student Gmail accounts for the purpose of ad targeting. Two of the plaintiffs, Robert Fread and Rafael Carillo, were students of universities that used GAFE. They said that this kind of activity could potentially violate multiple federal and state wiretap and privacy laws.

For clarity, “data mining” is the analysis of large quantities of data to find previously unknown patterns. A data mining program would find that the person had used a word on more than one occasion and would then show the person ads on that based on that in the future.

An example would be someone who uses the keyword “Nike” multiple times in an email to a friend or searches for it often on the web. Shortly after that, Nike products appear in that person’s social media advertising spaces.

Surprisingly, during the controversy, a spokeswoman from Google confirmed the allegations in Education Week, stating that “the company ‘scans and indexes’
the emails of all GAFE users for a variety of purposes, including potential advertising, via automated processes that cannot be turned off.”

In early December of 2015, Google came under fire by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for a complaint filed to the Federal Trade Commission that Google had been using the “Sync” feature on school supplied Chromebooks, of which LHS has 186.

During research for the EFF’s “Spying on Students” Campaign, aimed to raise awareness about the privacy risks of electronics supplied to student by schools, the EFF claimed that Google had gone beyond data mining emails, and had started tracking everything from internet search histories to passwords saved through Google services.

Now, before you get out your pitchforks and torches and storm Google’s headquarters, let me clarify. These allegations are simply that: Allegations. 

Derek Root, the Director of Technology Infrastructure for FCPS said,“We built what we call a ‘walled garden.’ So everything within the FCPS domain is walled off from the rest of Google. Accounts for GAFE are not administered by Google; they are administered by [our] IT staff.”

He also says that “Their agreement with FCPS, and all school systems for that matter, is that they will not data mine specific information about specific users. They will look for trends, but they do that strictly for enhancing the system.”

Many students and teachers use GAFE, with over 40,000 registered students and “around 3200 active Google Classrooms.”

So what does this all mean? Google does data mine users, but student accounts are different. “If you were a typical private citizen, then the statement would be correct. But with FCPS, it is different. We takes that extra step to maintain control over the accounts here at the office,” says Root.