jkonrath@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jon) (01/29/91)
OK, I'm new to this, and I'm sure this topic's been dredged before,
but this is on a need-to-know basis:
if you're on a computer, and youve signed no 'computer use'
agreements, and your university has no 'understood' agreements on
computer use, what are your rights of privacy concerning text files
and email?
the reason I'm asking, is on one of my class accounts, the /root is being
very fascist...he's deleted mail, read mail, and gone as far as changing
words in mail. im not talking mail about 3 on one lesbian sex, or cracked
visa numbers: i mean just opinionated stuff about university policy, anti
desert storm mail, and anything that mentions computing not affiliated
directly with the class youre in.
any ideas on what i can yell at the dean about that will back me up?
post or email me....the silver and rose.ucs.indiana.edu paths are
secure...thanks
jon
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Konrath, Consultant jkonrath@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
IUSB Computing Services ap202093@natasha.iusb.indiana.edu
jkonrath@rose.ucs.indiana.edu
under construction... jkonrath@sbway.iusb.indiana.edugwh@soda.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) (01/29/91)
In article <1991Jan28.203204.16830@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> jkonrath@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jon) writes: >if you're on a computer, and youve signed no 'computer use' >agreements, and your university has no 'understood' agreements on >computer use, what are your rights of privacy concerning text files >and email? > >the reason I'm asking, is on one of my class accounts, the /root is being >very fascist...he's deleted mail, read mail, and gone as far as changing >words in mail. im not talking mail about 3 on one lesbian sex, or cracked >visa numbers: i mean just opinionated stuff about university policy, anti >desert storm mail, and anything that mentions computing not affiliated >directly with the class youre in. > >any ideas on what i can yell at the dean about that will back me up? >post or email me....the silver and rose.ucs.indiana.edu paths are >secure...thanks As a sysadmin of an open computing cluster, this behaviour _really_ offends me. Personal files are (legally as far as I can tell) personal; mail is even more so, in most cases. If any of our people did this, we'd take them off staff immediately, and they would in all likelyhood be liable for Student Conduct charges. (Staff is student volounteers). We don't go into people's files with root permissions unless we have evidence of illegal/prohibited activity, and we've never allowed tampering with mail. Sounds like you ought to raise a real big stink. == George William Herbert == * UNIX ate my last .sig, Waiting for Plan 9! * == JOAT for Hire: Anything, == ######### I do Naval Architecture, ########## ===+++ Anywhere, my price +++=== # Spacecraft Design, UNIX Systems Consulting # == gwh@soda.berkeley.edu == # RPG writing/development, and lots of other # == gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu == ## random stuff, of course. I'm a JOAT 8-) ##
cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) (01/29/91)
If you post the address of the sysadmin, perhaps we can ask him to give his side of the story. Should be interesting. Bob Jacobson
kmc@netcom.UUCP (Kevin McCarty) (01/30/91)
jkonrath@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (jon) writes: >OK, I'm new to this, and I'm sure this topic's been dredged before, >but this is on a need-to-know basis: >if you're on a computer, and youve signed no 'computer use' >agreements, and your university has no 'understood' agreements on >computer use, what are your rights of privacy concerning text files >and email? Are you really sure about not signing *anything*, and not being a party to *any* 'understood' agreements? Specifically, how is that you are registered in a class if you didn't sign anything? Did you read *all* the fine print? >the reason I'm asking, is on one of my class accounts, the /root is being >very fascist...he's deleted mail, read mail, and gone as far as changing >words in mail. im not talking mail about 3 on one lesbian sex, or cracked >visa numbers: i mean just opinionated stuff about university policy, anti >desert storm mail, and anything that mentions computing not affiliated >directly with the class youre in. I can conceive of a policy which would attempt to prohibit the use of university resources for patently non-educational purposes which are otherwise perfectly legal and innocent. After all, just because you're a student doesn't mean you should be entitled to run your startup business venture on school computers, does it? On the other hand. Outright removal is one thing, but making changes in content to any files, public OR private, legitimate OR questionable, that you have nominal ownership of kind of shoots the ground out from under any notion of personal responsibility and integrity that the university might expect to hold you to. In other words, how can you be held responsible for something over which you have no control? In such a situation, I would find it difficult to believe that my coursework stored in the computer remained intact from day to day. >any ideas on what i can yell at the dean about that will back me up? >post or email me....the silver and rose.ucs.indiana.edu paths are >secure...thanks >jon >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Jon Konrath, Consultant jkonrath@silver.ucs.indiana.edu >IUSB Computing Services ap202093@natasha.iusb.indiana.edu > jkonrath@rose.ucs.indiana.edu >under construction... jkonrath@sbway.iusb.indiana.edu -- Kevin McCarty kmc@netcom.uucp {apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!kmc