Trinity College Dublin has switched to Google's e-mail application, Gmail. And universities in Egypt, Kenya, and Rwanda have also made the switch, the BBC reported yesterday.
In Dublin, the news service says, "the addresses and domain name still remain the same — but underneath the bonnet, it's a service provided by Google." Trinity College officials say they made the decision to outsource because it let them maintain a robust e-mail system at no additional cost; Google does all the work.
Arizona State University made the same decision late last year to switch to Gmail, which also comes with a calendar and instant messaging, two items that are very attractive to students.
Invasions of privacy may be less attractive, and Google's privacy policies have generated concern on campuses as well as from the watchdog group Privacy International, which on Monday rated Google worst among major Internet companies on privacy-protection practices. The group said Google keeps user data — such as lists of visited Web sites — on file for long periods of time. The company, famous for its "do no evil" motto, said the report was based on major inaccuracies. More and more students will get the chance to find out for themselves, apparently. –Josh Fischman
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