If school uses Google Mail does it violate Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act?

The university I am attending has decided to use Google Mail (aka Gmail) as their official email service provider.

Google's terms of service states (paraphrasing) when you send or receive data via Google Mail you are granting Google a license use this data in anyway they see fit including making it publicly available.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits schools from disclosing personally identifiable information from students’ education records to outside parties.

If a school uses Google Mail does it violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act?


FERPA
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) | U.S. Department of Education

Google Terms of Service (see Your Content in our Services section)
Google Terms of Service ? Policies & Principles ? Google

 

According to this document from Google identified as "Google Apps for Education Agreement,"

I expect this or something like it is in force for your school's Google Mail email service, superseding or rather than the Google Terms of Service for the general public to which you (jam, the OP) linked above.

 

Thank you for asking this! I have always wondered myself. I actually do not use my alma mater's mail for that very reason!

 

As noted, the terms of service for free gmail and the terms when an institution adopts it as their platform are significantly different.

 

My school requires us to use their email system and will not let us use personal email addresses.

 

Thanks for sharing this link. Those terms are much better.

 

Google or Microsoft, they all using Big Brother.

 

I believe that many professors at my alma mater required us to use the school's e-mail as well. I have been graduated for a few years now but the school allows us, as graduates, to use our school accounts indefinitely. What I was meaning to say was that I do not use it now (even thought I can) because I am unclear regarding the terms of service and I'd rather use an account that is more secure. Nothing is entirely private, but some are better than others, of course.

 

I am on the same boat with Georgetown University's *@georgetown.edu through Google platform. Well, I know it is vulnerable to the NSA and big brothers; but, it is better than having an *@gmail.com account, but at least I don't receive unwanted email messages. Yahoo and Hotmail sends unlimited spam messages...

 

The reason that you are required to use your school's e-mail for all "school business" is FERPA.

When you enroll at a university, you are given a unique user name and password. In theory, you are the only one that should have access to that information. Because of that, the school can assume that communication issues from your school e-mail is from you.

When using outside e-mail providers, the school can't verify that they are in communication with an actual student.

 

Three of the 9 schools I work for use Google for university email.

 

I do engineering consulting and several clients will not allow me to use gmail for their proprietary information.

 

No more so than having contract employees working in administrative offices. Realistically the Department of Education would never initiate a FERPA enforcement action against any university for using Google or Microsoft for their email platforms.

 

It seems like there is a current lawsuit related to this issue:

Google Under Fire for Data-Mining Student Email Messages - Education Week

 

OK. Now my concerns are heightened again. This was a very interesting article.

From the article:
"the district’s agreement with Google precludes such data from being used to serve ads to students or staff members."

"A Google spokeswoman confirmed to Education Week that the company “scans and indexes” the emails of all Apps for Education users for a variety of purposes, including potential advertising"

Bradley S. Shear, a social-media and digital-privacy lawyer based in Bethesda, Md., said he saw “major FERPA violations” in Google’s activities and suggested that the Education Department should investigate the company.

 

Well my school released Google Mail. I get a screen where I have to accept the Google terms of service. Below is one paragraph which I cannot accept.

"When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. "

Ug