Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!att!ulysses!gamma!sword!arrow!yba
From: yba@arrow.bellcore.com (Mark Levine)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Privacy of computer files...
Message-ID: <935@sword.bellcore.com>
Date: 15 Nov 88 01:55:59 GMT
References: <183@gloom.UUCP> <1988Nov11.180920.21736@utzoo.uucp> <4746@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Sender: news@sword.bellcore.com
Reply-To: yba@sabre.bellcore.com
Organization: Bellcore, Red Bank, NJ
Lines: 16

In article <4746@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
>For a sysadmin to look through a user's files is somewhat similar to a
>law-enforcement officer putting on a pair of magic x-ray vision
>glasses.  The intrusion is then psychological, not physical.
>
>I see no direct legal precedent for this.

I think you will find there _is_ a Federal law prohibiting the sysadmin
from looking at the contents of electronic mail queues.  I recall a bulletin
circulating at MIT shortly after this law took effect.  It makes troubleshooting
mail systems harder, and makes me question having bounced mail go to "postmaster",
and I sure hope it gets interpreted liberally -- but it may be the precedent you
are seeking (or not seeking).  Perhaps someone else has more up to date info?

Eleazor bar Shimon, once and future Carolingian
yba@sabre.bellcore.com