Education in the Netherlands can continue to use Google services, where we previously reported that education should stop using Google services for privacy reasons.
The fact that education can continue to use Google is because Google has made concrete commitments. The shortcomings previously identified by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) are being removed.
Surf, purchasing club Sivon and SLM Rijk have entered into an agreement with Google for this. The search engine giant will take various technical and organizational measures to comply with GDPR legislation.
Google itself thinks it can reduce the high risks in time. In addition, it was discussed that the details of these agreements will be announced on July 21. Other Google services that are often used in education, such as the Google Cloud Platform and Chrome OS, will also be examined in future consultations between Google, Surf and Sivon.
All this is evident from a letter from Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (Education, Culture and Science) and Minister Arie Slob (Primary and Secondary Education and Media) to the House of Representatives. Surf and Sivon have confidence in the commitments made by Google. The effects on privacy of using the popular Chromebooks are still being assessed. The results of this are discussed with Google, which has also been done previously with Google services.
The renewed agreement has consequences for education. New contracts will have to be concluded. In addition, technical settings will also have to be adjusted in order to use Google services safely.
