Ask Slashdot: Explaining Cloud Privacy Risks To K-12 Teachers?

hyperorbiter writes "With the advent of Google Apps for Education, there has been a massive uptake by the K12 schools I deal with on signing students up with their own Google powered email address under the school domain. In addition, the students' work when using Google Apps is stored offshore and out of our control — with no explicit comeback if TOS are breached by Google. It seems to me that the school cannot with integrity maintain it has control over the data and its use. I have expressed a concern that it is unethical to use these services without informing the students' parents of what is at stake e.g. the students are getting a digital footprint from the age of seven and are unaware of the implications this may have later in life. The response has often been that I'm over-reacting and that the benefits of the services far outweigh the concerns, so rather than risk knee jerk reactions by parents (a valid concern) and thereby hampering 'education', it's better to not bring this stuff up. My immediate issue isn't so much about the use of the cloud services now, but the ethics over lack of disclosure in the parental consent process. Does anyone have ideas about defining the parameters of 'informed consent' where we inform of risks without bringing about paranoia? (Google Apps is just an example here, I think it applies to many cloud services.)"

Comments

What *are* the implications?

[Dputiger]

This question needs a bit more detail. What *are* the implications of using these Google services? Is Google using the same boilerplate contract? Does it sweep emails for words and phrases to show advertising? Is it collecting anonymous data?

I think you probably need some school-specific clauses to address the particular privacy and safeguards but you haven't articulated any specific examples of areas where you think Google is falling short or why this might become a problem. Kids are going to have digital footprints as children. I might not like that very much, and as a parent I may try to limit it, but you can't stop it.

Re:What *are* the implications?

[hairyfeet]

Dude I've found what the meat of the matter is and its MUCH deeper than that...folks don't understand how the Internet WORKS, and THAT is a serious problem!

I work with ordinary folks 6 days a week and you'd be shocked how many truly believe the net is this big ball of blackness where things just disappear,never to be seen again, that these websites only know they are there when they are there, its a serious problem man. i had a customer just the other day set him up a Yahoo Chat (Boy MSFT shot themselves in the foot by killing Live Messenger, been a LOT of folks jumping ship lately) and he was shocked! shocked i tell you! That Yahoo had names showing up under his friends that he hadn't spoken to in like half a decade. he honestly thought that once he had stopped talking to people that was it, that just went poof and it was like it never existed.

So I think even before we talk about this specific case we really need to figure out how to explain how this thing we call the net REALLY works, because frankly its this misconception that the corps are using to gather all this info and data on us. Folks just don't understand that once something reaches the net it NEVER goes away, delete means nothing, its ALWAYS on a server somewhere.

Express your specific concerns in writing...

[Bearhouse]

It is an interesting point...
Sugget you do some research, (look into the big G's T&Cs), and write down exactly what you think the issue may be.
Try and be balanced, then fire it off to yor boss.
Your duty is then done, and your ass covered.