11/12/20258

When you become a student or employee at MRU you receive several benefits, one of which is a Google Workspace account. This thing of marvel provides you with an inbox, a word processor, a spreadsheet application, cloud storage and several other useful cloud based applications.

In addition to having this work/student account, many of us also have personal accounts that provide some of the same benefits. This is where things can become complicated. Having the two accounts makes it very easy to save work/school files on your personal Google Drive and personal files on your work/school drive. It can also result in sending a work/school email with your personal email address and vice versa.

This can pose problems in several ways. First, if you have saved work files using your personal account, you may be required to turn over access to it and your device so an access to information request can be fulfilled. Second, emails sent using your personal email address can be perceived as phishing and ignored. Lastly, when you leave the University, you may lose access to your work/student account and everything that is stored there.

For your privacy and safety, it is important that you keep your two worlds separate. The easiest way to do this, is to have separate devices for work/school and personal use. However, this isn’t an option for most of us. Fortunately, there is a solution. On your laptop use Google Chrome as your browser for work/school and then use a different one for your personal life. This separates the two accounts and helps prevent the accidental use of the wrong email or storage of data on the wrong drive.

On your phone, it is best if you don’t upload work emails. However, with some roles this isn’t possible. Therefore, when you have to have work/school emails on your personal phone, use a different email application for each one. Again, this helps ensure emails are sent from the correct email address and prevents confusion.

Remember, Mount Royal owns the Google Workspace accounts that you are given access to.  If you leave MRU, you may lose access to that account – including personal data, photos, etc. stored there. Additionally, all MRU assets (including Google Workspace accounts) are subject to Access to Information Requests.  If you have personal data stored in your work account, it may be subject to such requests.  While MRU does make every effort to ensure personal data is not included, it may still occur.  Protect yourself and your data – keep work/school and personal data separate.