Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!encore!gloom!cory
From: cory@gloom.UUCP (Cory Kempf)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Privacy of computer files...
Message-ID: <183@gloom.UUCP>
Date: 9 Nov 88 17:39:55 GMT
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Organization: Alloy Computer Products, Framingham, Mass.
Lines: 23

(excuse me if this is the wrong group, but I wasn't sure 
what the right group was, and the question is directed 
towards sysadmins...)

This vir- excuse me, worm has brought to light an interesting 
(at least to me, and my so who originally thought it up)
question:

Joe User has an account on a system that you are running.  Is it
proper for you (the sysadmin) to go poking through his files?

What about if he is suspected of some wrong doing?  Should it 
require a court order?

What if the user is PAYING for the computer services via a 
pay-for-access type organization?  Is this any different from
a class account in a school? (where the student's fees/lab fees
are paying the costs of maintaining the system, etc)

-- 
Cory (the last person to escape alive from riverside) Kempf
UUCP: encore.com!gloom!cory
	"...it's a mistake in the making."	-KT