Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) will no longer try to sell ads based on personal information collected about students using a suite of products tailored for schools.
Last week, Microsoft said it would help schools prevent ads from showing up in its Bing search engine.
The changes announced Wednesday revise some of the policies governing Google’s “Apps for Education” products.
Among other things, Google Inc. says it will no longer scan texts of Gmails sent through Apps for Education for clues about students’ interests. The scanning would give the company a better idea about what kinds of ads to show them.
Google is also removing an option that allowed school administrators to show Gmail ads when students were using Apps for Education. The Mountain View, Calif., company had been automatically blocking the ads unless administrator changed the controls.
More than 30 million students, teachers and administrators use the Apps for Education suite.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), meanwhile, is expanding a program that gives schools the ability to prevent ads from appearing in search results when they use its Bing search engine. The program, launched in a pilot program earlier this year, is now available to all U.S. schools, public or private, from kindergarten through the 12th grade.
The program is meant to create a safer online environment for children, but also promote use of Bing, which trails market leader Google.
Microsoft is also giving away a first-generation Surface tablet computer to schools where community members sign up to use the ad-supported version of Bing outside of the school.
