How private is my computer activity? Variants of this question are often asked of the policy officer in Cornell's Office of Information Technologies (OIT). In fact, while network operators in Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) take pains to protect the privacy of the university's computer users, the technology itself -- and the relevant policies and laws -- present realities that everyone should understand.
(Given the distributed nature of network computing at Cornell, policies and practices in academic and administrative departments may differ from those used at CIT. Check with your department's technology support provider.)
·Technically, can Cornell system administrators read my e-mail? Yes. Given the nature of the technology, Cornell's network operators, like their counterparts elsewhere, have the ability to see most e-mail messages.
·Do they read it? No, with rare exceptions. The sheer volume of e-mail renders the routine reading of messages impossible. In fiscal year 2001-02 alone, 358 million messages went over Cornell's networks. Network operators do occasionally see the contents of e-mail while performing necessary jobs, just as phone company operators sometimes break into live communications in the course of their duties, but they do not routinely read e-mail. Any messages they see, they are obliged to keep confidential.
Of course, if they see something they reasonably believe violates law or policy, they are obliged, under the university's "Responsible Use of Electronic Communications" policy http://www.univco.cornell.edu/policy/RU.html, to notify the Office of the Judicial Administrator, Cornell Police or OIT's policy adviser.
·When I delete a file from a central computer (server), is it GONE gone? Probably not. Most Cornell operators keep transaction logs and data backups for their servers. Many forms of electronic communication, like e-mail, can be retrieved at a later time, even information users believe they have deleted.
Logs and backups are maintained for legitimate system-administration reasons -- for example, disaster recovery, troubleshooting, capacity planning, security investigations and cost allocation. Moreover, CIT reviews its practices periodically to be sure that records are not kept for any other reasons or for longer than needed for business continuity.
·What kind of data is Cornell saving, who's saving it, why, where and for how long? Cornell provides no universal guidelines for data retention, so file-backup and system-log processes vary across campus. For a sense of CIT's approach to data retention, and the complexity of this issue, see the web page noted at end of this article.
·What web-related activity can system administrators see? As standard practice, the network routers keep logs of users' transactions that leave Cornell. These logs do not contain web site addresses, but they do contain numbers identifying each port accessed on each computer -- numbers that could, theoretically, allow system administrators to infer the general nature of a web site -- whether research or recreational -- accessed by a given user at a given time. While these logs do not track specific navigation (exact web pages or screens), the IP/port pair could fairly accurately imply the type of information being sought or transmitted.
·Does Cornell monitor the content of transactions on its network? No, with rare exceptions. As stated in the "Responsible Use" policy, it is not the university's practice to monitor the content or nature of an individual user's data, whether the information is in active transmission or stored. Monitoring of content occurs only in the event of a reasonable suspicion of a legal or policy violation.
·How can I prevent unauthorized access to my data? If you want to restrict people's ability to decipher your transactions, you must use special software to encrypt your data, for example, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) for e-mail. If you are working with university records or institutional data, you must have a sound policy for the escrow of encryption keys.
·Does Cornell sell information about me? No. CIT does not sell e-mail addresses or any other form of electronic communications or directory data to third parties. Any spam or unwanted e-mail you may receive is emphatically not the result of your address being sold but of the technical ability of marketers to harvest data from publicly available directories.
·Where can I learn more? For details, see "Can Cornell Read My E-mail? Are My Deleted Files GONE gone? The Facts About Data Access and Retention at Cornell" www.cit.cornell.edu/cit/Arch-Init/data_access_&_retention.html , by Dave Vernon, Tracy Mitrano and Marcia Riefer Poulsen.
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