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From: gwh@soda.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: email privacy
Summary: That's abuse of powers
Keywords: Big Brother, fascism
Message-ID: <40672@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 29 Jan 91 03:28:09 GMT
References: <1991Jan28.203204.16830@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: UCB Open Access Computing
Lines: 35

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-) ##