The state of Maine has certain laws that protect students from malicious actors and companies on the internet who try to collect, store, and sell data. Until recently, this has not been enforced well, but in October of last year, Google rolled out a new policy in order to comply with these laws. Under this new policy, student accounts, accounts under the age of 18 in G-suites for Education, will not be able to access sites that violate state data privacy laws.Â
Many sites that students and teachers have come to rely on, such as Notion and Quizlet, have been affected by this restriction. Starting next school year, Quizlet will not be able to be used. This is because Quizlet makes money by selling student data, which violates the law in Maine.Â
Luckily, the Yarmouth School District is a member of the Student Data Privacy Consortium, a group of schools from New England organized to negotiate with the companies that make these online services. The Consortium tries to get these companies to sign off that they will comply with the laws, and that they will not sell student data. Flip (formerly Flipgrid), Blooket, Canva, and Code.org, among many others, have signed off and are now allowed for use in the schools of the Consortium.