It’s a practice that’s always had many privacy advocates on edge, but at schools, universities, and colleges, email scanning has been met with particular condemnation. Unlike the majority of regular Gmail users, many student users are under 18.
Many in education found advertising, and the security concerns that can surround it, concerning as well, Bout said.
“This is why, from day one, we turned off ads by default in Apps for Education services,” he said. “Last year, we removed ads from Google Search for signed-in K-12 users altogether. So, if you’re a student logging in to your Apps for Education account at school or at home, when you navigate to Google.com, you will not see ads.”
Google’s not the only entity to come under fire for scanning emails.
Last year, Harvard University controversially, and secretly, conducted keyword searches on eMail accounts of 16 resident deans to find how information concerning a cheating scandal had been leaked. Though Harvard never mentioned a connection, the dean who oversaw those searches, Evelynn M. Hammonds, stepped down that May.
Other universities have admitted to scanning student eMails to keep an eye on cyberbullying and other campus threats.
In the blog post Wednesday, Bout repeatedly stressed the security reasons behind the decision, rather than portray the move as a reaction to criticism or legal action.
“Of course, good privacy requires strong security,” he said. “We have more than 400 full-time engineers — the world’s foremost experts in security — working to protect your information.”
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