Google will no longer scan the emails of children using their services at schools around the world, after the search company permanently disabled adverts in its Apps for Education product.
Adverts were already disabled by default in Apps for Education, a Google service which offers the company's cloud computing apps to schools and universities free of charge, but administrators were given the option to turn them on.
That option has also been removed, and adverts are now always off.
The changes were announced on Google's Enterprise blog, and come after the company's involvement in a lawsuit in California which accuses it of breaching a US law called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Ferpa). That act governs access to student educational records, and Google's automated scanning of emails for the purpose of displaying adverts allegedly breached the law.
"While I believe this is a good first step for protecting student privacy, why did it take Google years to make this change," asks social media lawyer Bradley Shear. "Absent multiple lawsuits and the investigative reporting from Education Week, would Google have changed its practices?
"Will Google also turn off its scanning and behavioral advertising functions for its other services such as YouTube in a school setting," Shear continues. "Will Google also change its Android and Chromebook policies to better protect student privacy? Will Google change its terms of service and privacy policies that govern all of its education offerings? Will Google revise all of its school contracts to reflect this announcement?"
The company had previously claimed that the automated scanning of emails provided features beyond mere advertising, which was why it continued to do it even for accounts where adverts were disabled. Among the features claimed were spell check, virus and spam protection, and the "priority inbox" feature. It also claimed that the scanning could not be turned off.
"Today more than 30 million students, teachers and administrators globally rely on Google Apps for Education," writes Bram Bout, the company's director of education, in the announcement. "Earning and keeping their trust drives our business forward. We know that trust is earned through protecting their privacy and providing the best security measures."
The move also follows an aggressive campaign from Bing, Microsoft's search engine, promoting its own ad-free product for use in the classroom. Bing allows schoolchildren to search the internet in an ad-free environment, although the product is only available in the US.