Google Apps

European Privacy Ruling On Google Has Real Public Sector Implications

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While European data protection authorities have only addressed the broad consumer market with their finding that the Google privacy policy as currently written doesn’t comply with European law, their ruling will also have a significant impact on government and public sector users as well.

Specifically, the ruling is likely to put a brake on the deployment of services like Google Apps by government and public sector customers in Europe. It also will have an impact on the adoption of cloud computing services, as we’ve noted in an early article. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 16, 2012 at 11:59 AM

What Wyoming Learned Moving Mountain Of Mail To Google Apps

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The Wyoming governor’s office gets a mountain of correspondence from constituents, both email and snail mail. On a recent day, for example, some 1,500 inquiries landed on Governor Matt Mead’s desk.

Until recently, the process of managing constituent inquiries to the governor was manual and paper-based, even for electronic correspondence. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 3, 2012 at 9:30 AM

Los Angeles Ends Google Apps For LAPD; Decision Bigger Than You Think

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Is the FBI trying to kill the use of cloud email services by local law enforcement agencies? Los Angeles, the first big city customer to adopt Google Apps for Government, now says the service cannot meet FBI security requirements. But is the FBI really at fault?

Google and the City of Los Angeles agreed to pull the plug on their very public, two-year struggle to deploy Google Apps for Government (GAFG) at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In a document dated Dec. 9, 2011, city officials blamed the failed deployment on FBI information security rules which, they allege, make it impossible to deploy cloud email services like Gmail to law enforcement agencies.
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This article was reprinted by permission of SafeGov.org.
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If this assessment is correct, local police and sheriff departments across the country who are considering Google Apps or comparable cloud services may be in for a rude awakening similar to the one that Los Angeles faces today. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 19, 2011 at 3:51 PM