Besides not addressing the points that EFF raised, one of my serious problems with Google Apps (as a user) is data leakage across services and accounts.
Some examples:
- Google Hangouts is one of the covered apps. But to be actually useful (e.g. if you want to share images), you had to turn on Google+. Images end up in Google+ photo albums, which are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and the data can be mined for advertising purposes.
- Google Drive is also covered, which means that data on Drive is not mined for ads. However, in a realistic work environment, you have to share files outside your organisation. If you share a file and someone ends up opening it on a non-Apps Google account, your document has been leaked to an ad-mined Drive account.
- When Google Photos was introduced, suddenly all my Drive photos were there as well. Google Photos is not covered, which means that the photos can be mined for ads. Luckily, this problem seems to have been resolved.
- Google Mail is covered by the terms of apps. But if I go to Google Plus, people I communicated with via e-mail are suggested as circle additions. Since Google Plus is not covered by the Apps terms, why does data from e-mail end up there?
My impression is that (perhaps driven by the consumer apps) data isolation is a real problem within Google and there is a certain amount of data shared between apps that are covered by the Google Apps terms and those that aren't. This seriously undermines my trust in Google Apps and its suitability for business/education.
Of course, I could switch off every Google service in Apps outside what is covered. But then you need two Google accounts, which is really inconvenient.
Some examples:
- Google Hangouts is one of the covered apps. But to be actually useful (e.g. if you want to share images), you had to turn on Google+. Images end up in Google+ photo albums, which are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and the data can be mined for advertising purposes.
- Google Drive is also covered, which means that data on Drive is not mined for ads. However, in a realistic work environment, you have to share files outside your organisation. If you share a file and someone ends up opening it on a non-Apps Google account, your document has been leaked to an ad-mined Drive account.
- When Google Photos was introduced, suddenly all my Drive photos were there as well. Google Photos is not covered, which means that the photos can be mined for ads. Luckily, this problem seems to have been resolved.
- Google Mail is covered by the terms of apps. But if I go to Google Plus, people I communicated with via e-mail are suggested as circle additions. Since Google Plus is not covered by the Apps terms, why does data from e-mail end up there?
My impression is that (perhaps driven by the consumer apps) data isolation is a real problem within Google and there is a certain amount of data shared between apps that are covered by the Google Apps terms and those that aren't. This seriously undermines my trust in Google Apps and its suitability for business/education.
Of course, I could switch off every Google service in Apps outside what is covered. But then you need two Google accounts, which is really inconvenient.