Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ulysses!andys From: andys@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Andy Sherman) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Ten Commandments of Personal Computing Message-ID: <11917@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> Date: 21 Jul 89 17:02:33 GMT References: <12702@well.UUCP> Sender: netnews@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com Reply-To: andys@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Andy Sherman) Distribution: comp Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill, NJ Lines: 48 In-reply-to: tale@pawl.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) In article , tale@pawl (David C Lawrence) writes: > > IX. THOU SHALT NOT SNOOP IN THY NEIGHBOR'S FILES > > > > With the growing use of electronic mail and computers > > connected in office networks, the issue of personal file integri- > > ty is gaining attention. The policy here is good citizenship. > > Would you open a letter addressed to someone else? Why should it > > be any different with a personal computer file? > >Would I open a letter addressed to someone else? Overlooking odd >circumstances (ie, mail to my dead grandfather), no. Why should it be >any different with computer files? Because they aren't bloody mail! >Ok, some of it is and I fully recognize that some people want to keep >it private. Fine. The fact that I keep my Mail directory and the >files is contains as world readable is merely a statement to the few >members of society that happen to trip through it. I've only had to >restrict access to one message recently because someone in his >generosity to help me with a problem mailed me his password. I administer systems in an R&D lab. I consider a user's home directory to be an extension of his/her filing cabinet. One does not rifle through it uninvited without a Real Good Reason, even if it is unlocked for convenience. I take a dim view of people tromping through other people's directories without permission, and I especially take a dim view of other super-users looking in my few unreadable directories uninvited. We have suspended accounts here for the sin of copying sources out of another users home directory and uucp'ing it to another system. Yes, we could have said, "this stuff is moderately sensitive, so we will put paranoid permissions on it" but that would have make life inconvenient for our users. Much better to get rid of the anti-social elements then create an anti-social environment in response. >If you've got something to hide, go ahead and hide it. Save yourself >from the consequences. I am really opposed to this fellow telling me >that I am practising immoral computer activity, though. I think common sense applies. I used vague terms like uninvited and Real Good Reason. Local practice will dictate what these terms mean. If your colleague is on vacation and the sources for something you're doing together are in his/her directory, that is a Real Good Reason. On the other hand, uninvited browsing for curiousity's sake is not. I'd call that immoral. -- Andy Sherman/AT&T Bell Laboratories/Murray Hill, NJ *NEW ADDRESS* AUDIBLE: (201) 582-5928 *NEW PHONE* READABLE: andys@ulysses.ATT.COM or att!ulysses!andys *NEW EMAIL* The views and opinions are my own. Who else would want them? *OLD DISCLAIMER*