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Comment by shevy-java | Hacker News Reader

But they still store the data.

Same goes for any third party service using Google Cloud. Google technically stores the data. They still can’t use it though.

“Can’t”

Correct, "can't". Are you suggesting they secretly violate the contract and use the data anyway?

they do not. I don't work there anymore and don't have any particular goodwill towards the employer that laid me off last year but I can guarantee that any data related to the education sector is under extremely strict controls.

surely you can take two minutes out of your day and do basic websearches for privacy class actions and settlements

https://www.classaction.org/news/microsoft-collects-massive-...

https://www.k12dive.com/news/week-in-review-april-6-2026/816...

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/...

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/journalists-sue-goo...

https://www.courthousenews.com/google-settles-class-action-o...

None of those have anything to do with Google for Education contracts, and I hope you realize that.

I really do not understand how anyone can give Google the benefit of the doubt in 2026. They literally make the law. They only adhere to the law when it makes financial sense.

Would anyone be shocked if they did? Tech firms seem to be immune from the law.

After PRISM and Room 641A, anything is possible.

Right but stuff like PRISM is the government getting data. In this scenario “the government shouldn’t trust Google with data because it might end up in the hands of the government” doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

Remind me in 10 years when the story breaks.

Hey ChatGPT, set a reminder for 2036 to tell me whether Google was found not to secretly violate TOS of School Chromebooks and use the data harvested from them to create value for it's shareholders.

Yes

What is the point this comment is trying to make? We can say this for every SaaS company on the planet.

No, because not every SaaS company is Google.

Legally they cannot, no. And sure, they could violate contracts and break data protection laws. But they’d be trading an enormous hit on their reputation, who knows how many hundreds of millions in educational contracts for, what, some basic demographic data on kids? Data they’ll almost certainly be able to get via other means once the kid becomes an adult?

I don’t like Google’s involvement in education. I don’t like Google much at all. But we should still be able to examine this stuff rationally without devolving into conspiracy theories that don’t make logical sense.

"reputation"

Honestly reputation isn't the main concern if you're in leadership there, although it is absolutely a concern. The main concern is having to do another consent decree with either the EU or the US government. Those are a complete pain in the ass.

How do you propose they offer the contracted services like MDM, GSuite (email, Drive, etc) without storing any of the data?

That isn't what the OP was alleging. Of course they store data -- encrypted both in transit and at rest, and you can even activate client side encryption (https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/security/about-...) -- but that doesn't mean they exfiltrate, use or share your data for their own purposes.

They don't, they never have, and they won't (unless there is a blatant, illegal policy violation and lapse of controls internally). This is very similar to the controls and policies in place governing FedRAMP contracts or the control of PCI/financial or HIPAA/healthcare data.

Until they turn 16 or 18.

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