Students don’t create their own accounts for use on the Chromebooks, and the computers operate within an FCPS domain, which protects them some from the rest of the “Google environment,” Root said. Students can’t email or send documents through Google Drive to the outside world, for example, and even if a student takes the Chromebook home to connect on a different wireless network, content is still filtered – so Facebook or inappropriate content is not accessible.

“Google says ‘Oh, that’s an FCPS address,’” Root said. “They redirect requests back to me, here, and that way Google doesn’t have or manage any of my user data. That also prevents outsiders from getting into the system.”

Certain applications or websites may request access to Google Drive, a service where files can be stored, but students are likely not publishing in-depth information about themselves on those files, Root said.

Google has pledged that no advertisements will be featured in Google Apps for Education, a range of products that includes Google Classroom, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and others. This advertisement-free zone is part of the allure of Google Apps for Education, Root said.

But as one of the leading electronic privacy groups alleged in December, Google collects private data for purposes other than for education. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that defends online civil liberties, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, stating that Google stores information about students and uses that to build a profile.

Google can observe what a student searches for when that students moves to a service outside of Google, outside Google Apps for Education, such as Google News, for example, the EFF stated in its complaint.

A feature known as Google Sync is automatically turned on in Chromebooks, too, which allows students to access certain information, such as documents, browsing history, bookmarks and more, if they log on to their account from a different computer.

Root said that the school district could turn off Google Sync, but that limits the useability of the Chromebooks. Part of the appeal is that ease of access to things the students have been working on, Root said.

The primary objections of the foundation do not conflict with the school system’s student data privacy policy, which was passed by the Frederick County Board of Education in 2015 and mirrors a state law approved in the 2015 Maryland General Assembly session.

FCPS regulation allows for vendors, such as Google, to use information internally to improve or develop its services, as long as that information is not being sold.

Khaliah Barnes, associate director with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research and legal group about online privacy based in Washington D.C., said her organization recognizes the benefit of technology in the classrooms, which allows for innovation, she said.

But Barnes stressed the onus to protect student information falls onto the school district, and not parents or students.

“The district should limit collection of information and make sure that the information won’t be used for secondary purposes,” Barnes said.

Some parents feel that the school district has failed in communicating adequately when introducing new technology into the schools.

Flemming Paschal, of Frederick, said she questioned the school district back in 2012-13 about protecting student data.

Paschal said when the bring-your-own device concept started to take hold in the school district, she disliked that the school system could review students’ devices while they were connected to the FCPS wireless Internet.

“I kind of got the deer-in-the-headlights look,” Paschal said. “Then they started handing out these Chromebooks, and what security is in place? There’s still no real answer.”