On Wednesday 24 February 2010 06:11:47 pm Alberto Treviño wrote: > On Wednesday 24 February 2010 03:39:24 pm Andrew McNabb wrote: > > I know that BYU has some legal rights to monitor its network, but what > > are the limits? They aren't supposed to read everyone's emails, are > > they? > > As to the limits, they should be published somewhere. I'll see if I can > find it.
I found it: http://policy.byu.edu/view/index.php?p=32 Let me summarize it in context: "CEC [Computer/Electronic Communication] resources include . . . networks and networking systems. . . . "The university retains absolute ownership rights of CEC resources. . . . "There is no general expectation of privacy associated with the use of CEC resources, except as required by law. BYU reserves the right to monitor CEC resource use and content." So, the policy includes network communications, the University owns it all, and there is no general expectation of privacy. Remember, I am not a lawyer, but my limited understanding of these laws tell me you cannot expect any privacy on the BYU network. As to your specific question, legally they have the right to read all of your emails. But, just because they have the right doesn't mean they will actually do it. >From the legal standpoint, this wording is required to allow BYU to legally enforce its policies. From a security standpoint, BYU does it to keep its network safe. From a technical standpoint, computer programs and systems are going to look at every bit in order to function properly. Again, who doesn't run Snort on their network as a defensive measure? Who doesn't run anti-virus or firewalls on their systems? Both Snort, AV and firewalls do the same thing: they read your emails, they read your traffic, they read your programs in an effort to keep you safe. -- Alberto Treviño BYU Testing Center Brigham Young University -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
