Dutch schools must stop using Google's email and cloud due to privacy concerns

I went to a Dutch high school that used Google Accounts for email, and they once caught some students &quot;cheating&quot; on a group project (i.e. collaborating in larger groups than they were meant to collaborate in, I guess) via email. This made me suspect that the admins could read our school email (which people also used to talk about various other stuff, which I guess was unwise). I don&#x27;t know if that was actually how they found out, but it made me very conscious of email privacy (or lack thereof).<p>Now I work at ProtonMail, so go figure.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;european-alternatives.eu&#x2F;category&#x2F;email-providers" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;european-alternatives.eu&#x2F;category&#x2F;email-providers</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;european-alternatives.eu&#x2F;category&#x2F;cloud-computing-platforms" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;european-alternatives.eu&#x2F;category&#x2F;cloud-computing-pl...</a><p>It should be easy to replace most of the services.

Great. Now let them get rid of the Microsoft requirement, because that&#x27;s at least as bad if not worse.

See also related story and discussion from 6 days ago:<p>&quot;Google Chromebook outlawed in Danish public schools&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32142927" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32142927</a><p>(77 points, 73 comments)

Shortly after the height of the Merkel&#x2F;NSA hacking scandal, when EU member states were most upset that US spying had been disclosed to their electorate (making EU politicians look weak in front of the voter). The EU kicked off an internal project to try and build a gmail replacement. Their plan was that customer number 1 would be all the educational establishments on the continent. They even got as far as checking out buildings to lease from paper manufacturers, to turn into data centres. Eventually that project went away, but I don&#x27;t think we’ve seen the last of it yet.

I cannot for the life of me understand why public education institutions everywhere don&#x27;t use Linux and open source software. For things like writing papers and doing research, Linux is more than enough. Plus it would give students a head start into understanding how computers actually work, which is arguably the most crucial skill for students today.

I guess they&#x27;re following Denmark&#x27;s example. And I think the rest of Europe should follow.

IMO, everyone should stop using Google&#x27;s email and cloud due to privacy concerns.

Note that this not an objective report, the site is for a competing product.

I am a UK college governor, and have bought up the GDPR issues that have come up with Google and Microsoft recently.<p>Whilst I do get some nonsensical response, that big tech have great security, it does feel really lainful that there is basically no alternative. I really want there to be, but there just isn&#x27;t a viable alternative.

Same here in Denmark. After the summerbreak, no google accounts and no chromebooks.

Good for them. Google comes through your email to build a profile for advertising. They claim its anonymous (but unique) id, but I have my doubts.

We will all be able to savor the irony when Dutch schoolchildren&#x27;s private info is leaked, because whatever group they&#x27;re going with will have no where near the concern for security and protecting private data like Google does.