[iDC] cloud computing and the university

[Matt Curinga]

 > student data would
 > not be mined as long as they were students (due to FERPA [1]) When they
 > graduated, students got to keep the email but Google had the right to
 > reach their tentacles in there.

Teachers College at Columbia is about to move to Google Apps in the fall 
and this is the agreement they have reached, too. Student accounts roll 
over to regular Google accounts if the students want to retain them when 
the graduate. Also, although Google does not mine the content of 
email/app data, they do mine the "signaling data" — the links and 
direction and activity between people (nodes). From this they can mine 
things such as which parties have greater influence etc. And, as more 
universities join in, they can increasing track this across universities 
and research groups.

Presumably they use this data to target ads for their regular web search 
and other services that are not part of the ad-free Apps for Ed. Google 
still knows the identity of the user, even if they are not explicitly on 
an Apps for Ed page.

Matt Curinga