Privacy in the workplace

[Horace Greeley]

Michael,

I am not an attorney, and the following is not legal advise.

On the other hand, substantive case law supports at least part of
your supervisor's claim.  You employer has a recognized legal interest
in anything that touches their network, equipment, email servers, etc.
You have, basically, no recourse, except to have _all_ personal mail
(e-, or otherwise) to go through non-University-related ISPs, whatever.

The passwords are another issue, and you really should, if this is a
_real_ issue for you, seek legal counsel in your local jurisdiction.
In my case, as the administrator of a reasonably important piece of
the Stanford network, all of my passwords are stored in sealed
envelopes, in fire safes, in three locations on campus, as well as
in a fire safe at my home.  This is _not_ normal for _most_ users
here.  None of the managers in the Controller's Office have
similar requirements for their employees.  This relates _strictly_
to my job function.

At Stanford, part of our agreement of employment is a work product
licensing agreement which assigns to Stanford University all interest
in patents, writings, and other intellectual properties which may
use University resources during their development.  This is not at all
unusual in CA, and, I suspect, elsewhere.  This agreement is, err,
reinforced, by the University by, among other things, keeping, on
a separate server _all_ incoming and outgoing email from _all_ sources.
That is, the one thing which I can be absolutely sure of being able
to restore, when a user bombs their machine, is their email.

Intellectual property law in these areas varies tremendously between
jurisdictions, and, with Federal interests vested in Interstate
Commerce, you can be sure that they will enter the arena more
extensively soon.

And you all thought that 1984 was a nice bedtime story...


Now, take a Soma, and relax.

Cheers!

Horace



At 10:01 PM 9/15/1998 -0400, you wrote:
>My supervisor an assistant dean for our school has formally requested
>that everyone in her charge deliver to her by a certain date their
>respective email usernames and passwords.  She says they will be kept in
>a secure place and used only in the event of an emergency.  I responded
>in email saying that I was uncomfortable giving this information to
>anyone.  I stated that I use email for work, family, and an education
>degree.  If an emergency came about then I suggested that she contact
>the administrator of email services for the university with a request
>for the information.  She is insisting that I must comply with her
>wishes and says that everything that comes through the server at the
>university is univeristy property.
>
>I have to admit I am stunned!  What do you guys think.
> 
Horace Greeley, CNA, MCP, RPT

Systems Analyst/Engineer
Controller's Office
Stanford University

email: hgreeley@leland.stanford.edu
voice mail: 650.725.9062
fax: 650.725.8014