Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1995)
Privacy in the age of e-mail: Your life may be available on-line I know w ho you are. ami 1 know- where you live Not only tan I find out where you live, hu! I can look up your home phone number All I have to do is log-on to the Uni versity computer network and look you up. If you are a student and have not requested suppression of your personal information in the student directory, you are listed on-line Information alKiut you is available not just to others at the University, but the world. That's right Surfers on the World Wide Web can type in your name and find out what's in your file This is cool if you want your friends in Alaska or your brother in Australia to lx* able to find your e-mail address This is not cool if you want your street address and unlisted phone number to remain semi-private. The bogie man can look you up, courtesy of the University. I discovered this a couple weeks ago when I tried to find the e-mail address of a friend. 1 found not only her e-mail address hut also her home address and her home phone number. Surprised. 1 looked myself up. By golly, there 1 was I was stunned. The nice folks at the Registrar Office and Com puting Center are not stunned; they know you're in there It 's the students I've talked to. even the electronically savvy stu dents, who are stunned. We've all been editing our listed infor mation. which you can do now. too (see below). The University's Registrar Office maintains a database with information on all stu dents The University’s Com puting Center maintains a data base based on the information supplied by the Registrar Office If you filled out a form asking the registrar to suppress your information, you're proba bly not listed on-line. If you didn't fill out such a form, you can bet you're listed The Computing Center told me what I wanted to hear YUS. I t:ouId get into the database and edit my listing 11 an delete everything, or I can change some things Hut even so. the on-line stu dent database raises more than « couple of questions University have any responsibility to let students know that they're listed on-line, with personal information available worldwide' i say inoy m> n inn tniorma tion was accessible only to Uni versity students. I would tie less uncomfortable with the idea, but 1 still don't think the University should make your unlisted home phone number available to me • Dot's the University have any liability for our personal security? 1 say they do If the Universi ty makes my personal info available for electronic look-up and some scu/zhall looks up my stuff and uses it for scu/.zball purposes, 1 consider the University responsible • Does the University have anv liability for our personal safety? 1 sav they do. If some lec her ons pervert vs aits on mv Isit k porch for me to get out of class, or starts c ailing me at home. I consider the University ethical ly. legally and financ ially responsible for any conse quences Not only did the Uni versity list this information on a globally-available network, it did it without letting tne know it was there. • Does the University have any purpose for maintaining How to change your life information on-line ■ GUIDE: Following these steps will keep your pnvale data within your control By Kelly Andersson If you don't want all your per sonal information listed on the University computer system where anyone can loot, you up, you can get into the database and change your File Some of the items (your name and curriculum, for example) you can't change. Examples of items you can change are your phone number, your fax number and your address. Here's what you do: 1 Log onto gladstone (or your other system if you don't use gladstone). 2 When you See the prompts below, tyjxi what is printed in bokL 3. Find out what "alias" or userid is connected to your name You must use your real legal name just as it appears in your registration information, Let's say your name is Johnny B. Goode. You should do this from the sys tem prompt: ''1%“ •t. Type: ph Johnny B. Goode return all Don’t use a <cr> or <enter> whom it says return. TYPE IT JUST l.IKK IT SAYS, using your full legal name, ami you w ilt get a listing of all kinds of stuff, some of it for you and some of it for other people with names like yours. Finn yourself in there, and check it out. What you see here is the infor mation that's available to anyone — the public data r> Make a note of your alias If it starts with "tmp-." you can’t change your listing You have to get a uo-net 11) at the Uomputing Center If your alias begins with "uo." you can changu some of your list ing but only if you remember your uo-net password If you IX)NT rememtrer it, you have to go to the Computing Center with your identification and fill out a form to have your uo-net pass word reset. b Mere's how you find out what else is in your file and change it if you want to. From the system prompt, you get into the database like this: 1% 7. Type ph H You’ll see this "5Dale 1993/07/21 22.00:42 SSRevision 6.6 S 200:Database ready. Ph>" 9 Type login un-John I urn to GUIDE. Pacje 4 anti publishing this database' Sure it dot's The Registrar, iht» Computing Center and oth iir University department* might base good reason for contacting me But do the> nifd to make it available to anyone who want* to look' Hell, no They could restrict a* i ess to it, and they should. • Have other universities addressed this issue' Vos I tried looking up friends at Stanford, and I can't get into their database at all I can’t even find the e-mail addresses of Stanford students, much less their home phone n unifiers Realistically, we know thitt information about us is in the files and records of i ountless businesses and organizations. I understand that many of these businesses and organizations have more information alxuit me than I'd tike them to have, and I'm not comfortable with that However, students aren't ins lifted in assigning any "blame" at this point. I'm quite sure that neither the Ki*gistrar s Office nor the Computing Center had any intention of compromising our privacy or m« urttv when the system was set up. It's sun ply a matter of technology get ting ahead of us Al Stavitskv, who teaches "Mass Media .% Soc iety" at the journalism school, agrees "Clearly there are emerging problem areas regarding com puter-based commune ation." in* savs "The tec hnologv is developing faster than our abil itv to antu i |»«iIt* problems Pro te» tion of personal information is one of these areas, along with issues of copyright and Hbo|." lust Ins euse the information is on-line, though, doesn't mean it ought to stay then' 1 he currant system raises issues that shouhl he addressed One is my right to privm y Another is whether 1 have any right to expect the University' to take measures to maintain its infor mation about me in such a wav as to provide for se< urity. ImiIIi in terms of information and physit al safety What do you think' Kelly Aiuh’rssan. a junior major mg in journalism, is a columnist for the Emerald No big deal... (it’s only your future.,) <?25* UlMMl Wlty do rooff students {4A« Kaplan than any other prtp count? Vfciyt* ff I !N» tnjXSi’! TOlruCtCXl wt*o lAoni tut !«i out of the tf4rvuJaaJutd p4am that *ocu\ on fxmi nftKh tfcm agam ■t could be the #3 mt%)o Kjptan uporxft eacti on rrvea#t ft tar fttOff than it*§ competition vVf tat to ttorvk if -> ail ol fheve TM umpla tact la il you tit* Kaplan you II gal a higher tcora 1-80CMtAP»TEST »•<> higher ican KAPLAN 720 1 13lti #303 • 345 4420 We'll pay you 60% of the new, student price for books we need for winter term '96! HKa.in. Store Nov 29-Dee 9 Regular Store Hours Dec 4—1)CC 8 8:30-5:30 Fri 8:30-4 And... You can win $20 Cash! you're selling books rings, you'll win • Free Candy Canes! where the alarm rkx k $20 Cash! (Donated by Nebraska books) • Computerized Scanning! Calculator Buyback* TfeXAS Instkuments Models TI-82 A I I-8.1 ONLY! *( :al( ulaiors must have original manual A cable Calculator Buyback is Upstairs with the Brx>k Buyback.
