Google Loses Potential Major Google Apps Customer Due to Privacy Concerns

Google has been pushing hard to promote its Google Apps offering and increase adoption. The application suite is aimed at enterprises and schools and is seen as an alternative to products from established players like Microsoft or IBM. But Google’s efforts may have been dealt a blow, as the University of California Davis has decided not to pursue plans to switch to Gmail, which is part of the Apps suite, citing privacy concerns. The University was testing the email service with its 30,000 staff and faculty members.

Google had managed to convince the University to test its email offering. The pilot program involved just the staff members with plans to extend it to the students if the tests were successful. In would have been a rather large addition of users for Google Apps, which makes the Unversity’s decision even more ‘hurtful.’

In a letter to employees, the school’s CIO and other members of the IT staff said that the pilot program had been terminated due to privacy concerns. Specifically, faculty members had doubts about their emails staying private in the ‘cloud.’ The letter explained that Google had been sent a notice signed by ten countries asking for better privacy safeguards. It looks like the Google Buzz fiasco also played a role in the decision.

While the University’s decision is undeniable, the motives behind it may not be as clear cut. The reasons cited as privacy concerns don’t actually have anything to do with Gmail for Google Apps, which is what the University was testing. The joint letter sent by the ten countries is vague and falls more in the ‘scare-mongering’ category than into real concerns. It lists things like Street View, which Google has already addressed, and Google Buzz, which, again, has been remedied.

What’s more, Gmail for Google Apps doesn’t come with Buzz as the regular Gmail does. In reality, the emails are almost as safe in the cloud as they would be housed by an on-site email server and service, when it comes to privacy. Gmail is subject to government requests, of course, which Google has to comply with, but so is any other email service out there, regardless of how it’s operated. [via Information Week]