Google Apps: What About Security?

One of the questions that WILL come up as schools speak to the IT staff about Google Apps for Education is security.

One question I get frequently is simply... "What about security?"

I sometimes go into the "money in the bank" theory and share that we store money in the bank because that's what banks do so much better than we do at home. Banks have locked safes, fire suppression, armed guards, and they pay me an embarrassingly low interest rate. These are all measures that I don't do as well at my home. (And the bank won't let my kids find my money!) So I let banks do what they do so well. 

The same is true with Google. Google does more in their data centers than most schools can afford to do or are staffed to do. Read this post and be sure to watch the short video. Ask your school IT folks if they take the same measures to ensure data security.

I'm not suggesting that any online service is impenetrable and infallible. I do think the measures that Google takes is more than adequate for most schools. Do you?