E-Privacy Rule Could Change

Information about recent student e-mails is currently available to administrators upon request, a policy that could soon change.

The Committee on College Life will today discuss altering the student electronic privacy policy to formally limit the administration’s ability to access student data.

The current policy allows administrators to request information on e-mail content and the time, date, and size of e-mail messages when necessary “to ensure compliance with University rules.” Secretary of the Administrative Board John “Jay” L. Ellison wrote in an e-mail that in practice the disciplinary body never requests content.

The proposed changes would limit the number of administrators who can access such data and would require prior notice to the student.

Only the Ad Board and Student-Faculty Judicial Committee would be able to request access for pending disciplinary proceedings and students would be allowed to appeal.

The data accessible to administrators consists primarily of e-mails, but also includes items saved on the server, according to Faculty of Arts and Sciences Client Technology Adviser Noah S. Selsby ’95.

“Snapshots” of users’ information are saved for two weeks and then recycled; e-mail kept in the inbox is saved even if it was sent more than two weeks ago. The content of mail forwarded to an outside account and auto-deleted is not included in these snapshots, though the date and time of receipt is.

In the past three years, the Ad Board has only asked for information twice, according to Ellison, who is also an assistant dean of the College.

In one instance, the Ad Board was investigating whether a student had e-mailed problem set answers to his classmates, Ellison wrote.

The professor of the class estimated the time, date, and most importantly, size of the alleged message. Computer services then determined that a message fitting the criteria had been sent. Ellison wrote that they did not look at other messages or at the content of the message.

“It’s very likely that there’s nothing wrong going on right now,” said chair of the Undergradute Council’s Student Affairs Committee Michael R. Ragalie ’09, who will present the change at today’s meeting.

“The UC is talking about the potential for misuse,” he said. “There needs to be clarity.”

—Staff writer Sophie M. Alexander can be reached at salexand@fas.harvard.edu.