Of groningen, faculty of fears for miljoenencontracten after transition to Gmail

The faculty of Mathematics and natural sciences of the University of Groningen fear that they miljoenencontracten going to lose because the entire university is transitioning to Google Apps for Education. The board dismissed the objections against the move last week.

According to the Ukrant, the news medium of the University of Groningen, had sixty percent of the employees of the faculty raised objections to the move. The employees would be afraid that research data or patent applications on the street when the mail traffic through Gmail. Peter van Haastert, director of the faculty, Ukrant know that it seems possible that the faculty now miljoenencontracten with companies like IBM and DSM are going to lose. Those companies would not want that to researchers of the university to use Gmail, because they fear for industrial espionage of the Us government. Gmail is part of Google Apps for Education.

“IBM and DSM say that e-mail now also not safe, but the data that it to be achieved are legally stolen, and therefore not useful”, says van Haastert. He fears now that if the university has an agreement with Google, data is not reported as stolen, but as a shared category. That would be the legal challenge of its pieces more difficult. The faculty would therefore like to make use of the current service work of the university. That would be 150,000 euros per year, “but that we had there for about had, since the contracts in the tens of millions of ‘walk’.

Google in a response opposite Tweakers know that it is the security of data ‘very seriously’. The company does say that its best to prevent that data from users is in the hands of people for whom it was not intended. Many users would Gmail a more secure service than the one they had previously.

Gernant Deekens, the spokesman of the university said opposite Tweakers that the university administration is not enough reason saw to only for the faculty of Mathematics and natural sciences are an exception to the switch. The faculty would be the only ones with a majority of the employees has objected to the move to Google Apps for Education. Employees may, according to Deekens still individually raise objections.

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