electronic privacy

[Tom Russ <tomruss@mindspring.com>]

> Our "network backbone team", as they call themselves,  ie sysops, have
> instituted a new set of usage rules which include the following:
>
> "... user ... understands and agrees they [sic] are [sic] specifically
> waiving any expectation or right to privacy in their [sic] communications,
> data, programs, or other personal information stored, displayed, accessed,
> communicated, published, or transmitted" on the college's "Technology
> Facilities" ie computer system.

I heard on "All Things Considered" on NPR last week of a recent federal
(Supreme?) court decision which supported a company in its invasion of the
privacy of its employees _without_ the employees even having signed such an
agreement.  

Unless the U.S. Congress alters some of the provisions of the recent
Telecommunications Act, employers need to monitor the information
transmitted through their systems to protect themselves from litigation
(civil & criminal) resulting from the acts of their employees.  If I sent
you a dirty message or picture, the new law says my internet service
provider and yours are responsible for the illegal material transmitted
through their computers.  

> 2) Are these rules similar to the rules of *your* system?

On our system, the policy is _not_ to monitor employees', but to reserve the
right to monitor students' transmissions.  We do not have an active
monitoring program in place, but do have an automated monitor which shuts a
user down if they do some predefined inappropriate things, like communicate
with known cybersmut sources or use certain phrases.  We do not advertise to
anyone on campus exactly how this monitoring is done.

> 3) How do the members of this list feel about  this issue? 

I personally do not like having my e-mail monitored, nor do I, as a system
manager, want to have any responsibility for keeping the discussions passing
through my servers clean.  I am entirely opposed to censorship in any form.
A few (very few) parents have expressed concern that their children can
access porn at school.  In spite of our efforts, there are still ways for
students to find the grainy images they want.

> 4) Where might a discussion of this issue be seen on the Internet?

Try these:
        http://www.vortex.com/privarch.htm
        http://privacy.org/pi/

they don't directly address your concerns, but there might be a link to
employer/employee privacy issues.

If you e-mail ATC@NPR.ORG, and inquire about the piece I mentioned, they
might be able to point you to some pages relating to your question.  I
inquired a few months ago about another topic, and their response included
URLs (even though the story was completely non-technical in nature)

Tom Russ