CIO Peter Siegel, Academic Senate IT chair Niels Jensen and Campus Council IT chair Joe Kiskis said the plug was pulled on Gmail because faculty were concerned that Google’s services wouldn’t keep their correspondence private enough. Many privacy experts also say that Gmail’s social component, Google Buzz, is the source of privacy and security vulnerabilities.
School officials also noted, “Outsourcing e-mail may not be in compliance with the University of California Electronic Communications Policy.”
About a month ago, Yale University made a similar decision. Yale’s concerns centered around security issues, technological risks and the way Google manages data in the cloud.
On the other hand, however, many other schools and local governments are using Gmail and Google Apps to great effect, including lower IT costs. Just last year, Los Angeles “went Google”, a proposal that was agreed upon unanimously by the city council. Washington, D.C., also uses Google’s applications and services, including Gmail.
What do you think: If you’re a Gmail user, do you use the service personally or professionally? Are you ever concerned or uncomfortable about privacy issues in Gmail? And do you think UC Davis’ faculty are being needlessly paranoid, or are their concerns valid?
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