Privacy in the workplace

[Ron Torrella]

On Wed, 16 Sep 1998, Conrad Hoffsommer wrote:

> Dave's right, of course, but the Dept Head is just trying to excercise her
> control over all personnel and equipment in the department.
> 
> If Mike, like I, gets the .edu e-mail account gratis as a "perk" of the job,
> then it _does_ own the account and can excercise control over it's use.

Wait a minute.  Although the U may have rights to intellectual property,
it doesn't necessarily have rights to information that it deems "private." 
Your assertion would mean that the U has control over everything written
on University paper with University pen/pencil, wouldn't it?

Granted, the university can revoke/withdraw/suspend an employee's
privilege to use and/or access its computer system/equipment.  I don't
believe anyone can exercise the kind of control this supervisor wishes to
exercise. 

Passwords are in use for a reason.  Security. That supervisor has no more
control over the safekeeping of usernames/passwords than any other "user" 
of the system. I'm not sure even the System Administrator knows the
password of each user! I believe passwords can be over-riden in order to
gain access to an account, but I don't think a sysadmin can decipher a
password (legally or ethically, anyhow).  If they can, *anyone* can!

Most universities have strict requirements for gaining forcible access to
individual email/network accounts and those requirements usually involve
reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing or misuse. Further, gaining access by
force is usually done so only in conjunction with legal counsel.

Ron Torrella, RPT
Piano Technician
University of Michigan
School of Music