Google claims it has stopped scanning students' accounts to serve them ads, according to a report.
The apparent move, reported in The Wall Street Journal, comes after a group of students from California sued Google earlier last year over the issue.
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The suit, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims Google's activity violates state and federal privacy laws since the students are under 18. In particular, the scanning may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA]. FERPA, which was issued in 1974, ensures the privacy of records of students under the age of 18. The Department of Education's recent guidance on the issue also appears to indirectly state that Google's Gmail practices run afoul of FERPA.
The students used Apps for Education is a suite of free, web-based education tools that has some 30 million users worldwide. Gmail is a component of Apps for Education. Google didn't put ads in the apps, but continued to scan students' Gmail activity, possibly to gather data to serve them ads via Google's AdWords program.