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Electronic mail is subject
to all of the privacy protections afforded to traditional "paper" mail.
Skidmore College believes that electronic mail is privileged communication
between the parties involved. It is the policy of the College
that electronic mail cannot be opened or read without the express permission
of the recipient, except as required by law or by this policy statement.
MAIL VIOLATIONS
The following list summarizes
serious violations of Skidmore e-mail policy.
- FORGED MAIL
- Just as
it is possible for someone to forge a signature on paper mail, there
exist ways to forge electronic mail to make it appear as though it originated
from a different person. The College views such practices as a violation
of this policy statement.
- MENACING
- Sending electronic mail
that is abusive or threatens an individual's safety is a serious violation
of this policy statement. The use of electronic mail for sexual, ethnic,
religious, or minority harassment is a violation of this policy statement.
- HARASSMENT
- The use of electronic mail
to harass an individual is a serious violation of this policy statement.
Such action includes:
- sending or forwarding
chain letters, that is e-mail which uses a pyramid scheme to distribute
communications to an exponentially growing collection of recipients.
- deliberately flooding
a user's mailbox with automatically generated mail,
- sending mail that is deliberately
designed to interfere with proper mail delivery or access,
- or other acts forbidden
by Federal or State Law.
- UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS
- Any attempt, successful
or unsuccessful, by a user to gain access to another person's e-mail
files is a violation of this policy statement.
RESPONSE TO
CLAIMED VIOLATIONS
When the Director of Enterprise Systems receives a report
of suspected mail violation, he or she will confer with the person making
the accusation and take appropriate action under the circumstances.
The suspected privacy violation
will be reported to the appropriate authority for investigation and adjudication
as follows:
| For faculty: |
The Dean of the Faculty |
| For administration and
staff: |
The immediate office director
and supervisor |
| For students: |
The Academic Integrity
Board (if the violation is related to a Skidmore course). |
| For students: |
The Social Integrity Board
(if the violation is related to action not connected to a Skidmore
course). |
| For union personnel: |
Human Resources Director. |
| All members of the College: |
Any member of the College
who believes that improper use of e-mail has violated their academic
freedom may present their case to the Committee on Academic Freedoms
and Rights |
Complaints of menacing that
involve sexual, ethnic, religious, or minority harassment will also be
reported to the College Diversity and Affirmative Action Officer.
Violations that include a serious
threat to personal safety will be reported to Campus Safety.
If the Director of Enterprise Systems concludes that a user of College e-mail presents a serious threat
to the College computing systems, the Director, after consultation with
appropriate College authority, will disable that user's e-mail account.
Restoration of that account will depend upon the outcome of an investigation
that explores the alleged violations of College policy governing use of
electronic mail.
As part of its investigation,
the appropriate College authority may examine mail logs, and any other
appropriate documents or testimony. It may call upon IT for expert testimony
or opinion.
SOME OPERATING
PRACTICES
TO IMPLEMENT MAIL PRIVACY
USER CONSULTATION
From time to time, IT receives
complaints, requests or user questions relating to mail delivery. Its
response to such communication will be guided by the following principles:
- A user's mail file will
be accessed only with the prior knowledge and permission of the user
involved.
- Messages contained within
that file will be read only to the extent needed to assist the user
involved. The content of those messages will not be retained, nor will
this content be discussed or shared with others.
- IT will not access the
mail files of a third party in order to confirm successful mail delivery
without the prior permission of the third party.
UNDELIVERABLE MAIL
Our computer systems automatically
forward all undeliverable mail to the designated "postmaster". This
is a standard feature of mail systems in order to provide the equivalent
of the "dead letter" office. Typically, the postmaster checks the address
and, where appropriate, mails the message again to the correct address.
In general, incorrectly addressed outgoing mail is ignored, while incoming
mail is redirected to its intended recipient.
The postmaster shall always
be a member of the IT professional staff. The postmaster will read the mail
only to the extent necessary to assist in proper mail delivery. Copies
of the messages will not be retained after successful redirection, nor
shall the postmaster discuss the contents of the messages with other
individuals.
RETRIEVING DELIVERED MAIL
IT occasionally receives
requests wherein a user asks if IT can retrieve a message sent by
that user to a third party. Such requests will not be honored
since it requires reading the mail of the third party -- a clear violation
of the third party's personal privacy.
MAIL BROWSING
IT personnel are not permitted
to read users' mail without the prior permission of that user.
ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF ILLEGAL
ACTIVITY
If IT personnel come upon
messages whose content is clearly illegal, they have a responsibility
to report these messages to the appropriate campus committee or to
Campus Safety. Examples include messages containing illegally-obtained
credit card numbers, telephone authorization codes, grade reports, criminal
conspiracy, or similar items. Such items might be discovered as part
of user consultation, dead-letter processing, or other tasks. Random
mail browsing is never authorized.
DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL MAIL
MESSAGES
No disclosure of the contents
of any e-mail message will be made by IT staff except when such disclosure
is required by law.
MAIL LOGGING
As part of system management,
certain College programs may gather statistics on mail usage. These
statistics may include the address of the sender, the recipient, length
of the message, and date. Under no circumstances may it include the
full text of the mail message.
Whenever IT reports statistics
on mail or on other system usage, IT will preserve personal privacy
as fully as possible. IT will not report mail usage statistics in
a form that is traceable to individual users.
MAIL MONITORING
Except as required by law
or the employment contract, IT considers it inappropriate for a supervisor
to request copies of all mail messages sent or received by his or her
staff. Such requests will be honored only with full prior knowledge
and authorization from both the supervisor and the staff member(s) being
monitored.
FILE BACKUP
Mail files are copied as
a routine aspect of Skidmore system backups. This is an automatic process
that does not involve any human reading of the files copied. Some backups
are archived for long-term storage. Such practices are not considered
a violation of the privacy rules.
USERNAME DISSEMINATION
A person's username and e-mail
address are considered public information that can be given out to other
individuals. IT will not knowingly permit its release for the purpose
of advertising, mass mailings, or other commercial uses.
Adopted by Information Resources
Council 2/16/99
Reviewed by the College attorney 1/25/99
Endorsed by All College Council 4/12/99
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