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Maintaining users' privacy and the privacy of information generated
by or belonging to users is a prime objective of Computer Services.
Computer Services staff with access to users' private physical or
electronic space or information stored in that space, will always act to
protect users' privacy to the fullest extent possible.
Office Space - Whenever possible, users will be notified before a
CS staff member enters a user's office. A user request for support
or submission of a trouble report constitutes permission to enter
an office for the purpose of servicing that request.
Acceptance of computer equipment implies consent for emergency access
to office space by Computer Services' staff.
Electronic Mail - Computer Services' staff members who have access
to electronic mail directories on multi-user computer systems will not
view users' private mail except in the following situations :
When suspected illegal or prohibited activity becomes known to a
Computer Services' staff person through viewing a user's private
electronic or physical space (according to these guidelines), the
activity will be reported to the Director of Computer Services and
in the case of electronic space, the information will be sequestered to prevent
alteration. The Director will initiate standard campus
procedures for investigating suspected illegal or prohibited activity.
Due to the nature of computer networks, it is impossible to guarantee
prevention of unauthorized access to data that is stored on the
network. System administrators, for many reasons, require access to the
entire network. This level of access gives them
the ability to view any data on the network, including users'
electronic mail correspondence. System administrators are bound
by the above policy, however, the threat of unauthorized access
remains. In addition, recent court rulings have
upheld an organization's right to record electronic correspondence
and use the contents against the author. Pegasus mail gives you
two options for protecting your correspondence. It allows you
to move your mailbox from the network to a local drive. In this case, only new,
unread mail, is stored on the network. Secondly, you can encrypt,
with a special key (password) a piece of mail so that only someone
with the key can read the mail. If you are concerned about e-mail
privacy, contact Computer Services for details about how to implement
either or both of these strategies.
Submitted to campus policy process as extant policy, 3-21-96, goldstein
