Uruguay to Develop Substitute for Google Apps to Evade Privacy Risks

The Uruguayan University of the Republic pledged to create a similar nation-centric software as the substitution for Google products.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — An agreement between Google and the government of Uruguay to provide local students with educational applications could be canceled as the Uruguayan University of the Republic has pledged to create a similar nation-centric software, according to El Pais.

A plan, presented to local lawmakers by the dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Mary Simon, along with the members of the Institute of Computing of the same school, will be implemented in a month.

The president of the Senate Education Commission, Jose Carlos Cardoso, said university representatives have warned of the risks of having Google involved in the use of private data, according to El Pais on Thursday.

The plan was elaborated after the university’s head said on local television he was concerned that using Google products could expose Uruguay to "spies."

The agreement between Google and the Plan Ceibal, a government-sponsored program to promote digital inclusion in public education, was concluded in May and includes right for the school and university students in the country to use all the Google Apps for Education services, personal e-mail accounts and cloud storage services with unlimited capacity for all users of the plan.