privacy

| |

Another of our periodic email cautionary notes

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, we have provided reminders about email problems.  One problem – which we have noted – is that at a public university, your emails may be subject to public documents requests. Another problem is that hackers may try to get into your email account through “phishing,” probably to use it to send out scam messages to your contacts.  Such an event seems to have occurred at UC-Davis: Hackers compromised the email accounts of three UC Davis doctors last month, potentially gaining access to personal or medical information on as many as 1,800 patients, the university announced Monday… …

|

Ahead of the Curve

Byuclafaculty

The curved neuroscience building Inside Higher Ed takes note of the recent UCLA policy on requests to faculty for public documents such as emails.  Blog readers will recall a recent posting on that new policy. …Carole Goldberg, a professor of law and vice chancellor of academic personnel at UCLA, is co-chair of the joint Academic Senate-Administration Task Force on Academic Freedom, which drafted the statement. She said that no particular incident at UCLA had inspired the statement, but that faculty and administrators wanted to “get ahead of the curve” on academic freedom and scholarly communications, in light of several high-profile…

| |

Someone may want to see what you are doing

Byuclafaculty

Faculty should have received the email from Chancellor Block below regarding public documents requests for such things as emails.  The statement is good.  The two links provided are also useful.  But when you get through reading them, you should still regard virtually anything you email or write as potentially a public document.  Yes, various exemptions exist.  But there are gray areas.  In addition, an email you sent to someone else at another public institution – maybe in another state – might be made public there.  Even if you deleted it, the recipient may have it.  That is the reality.============ Dear…

Unsolicited Advice for All UCLA and UC Faculty

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we provided some unsolicited – and maybe unwelcome? – advice for the folks in Murphy Hall.  Today, we provide some advice for all UCLA and UC faculty.  Actually, it is a reminder of advice that we give from time to time.  We live in an age where the word “transparency” has taken on an aura of unmitigated goodness.  In practice, transparency – at public universities – can mean invasions of privacy when it comes to emails.  Emails at public universities are subject to public documents requests.  From time to time, groups that don’t like what some faculty has said…

| | | | | | |

Scary Thoughts for Halloween

Byuclafaculty

Over the past year or so, there have been various scary developments about which we have blogged.  Most recently there is the recently-filed anti-pension initiative that sweeps in UC.  There is the volatility of state budget because of its heavy dependence on the income tax and the incomes of those in the upper brackets that are reflective of the ups and downs of financial markets.  There is the illusion that online ed will resolve the long-term budget squeeze on the university. The hotel shown below is pretty scary but so, too, is the UCLA Grand Hotel, in part because of…

With modern recording devices, a reminder that your classes are not really private, whatever the legalities

Byuclafaculty

That was then and this is now. We have reminded faculty from time to time that emails and other communications at public universities are generally not private and can be requested as public documents.  There are some questions about the legalities of students recording your classes.  A recent case in which a teacher in the LA school district was recorded cursing – and was suspended – is a reminder, however, that once a recording goes public, it can’t be retrieved.  Moreover, it is very unlikely that a student will be prosecuted for making such a recording.  And recording via cellphone…

| | |

UC Should Have an Interest in CalPERS Privacy Hearings

Byuclafaculty

As noted many times on this blog, the wholesale release online of payroll and pension data BY NAME is a violation of personal privacy of employees and retirees and raises the threat of ID theft.  No private universities are forced to release such data.  None would do it voluntarily.  Indeed, no private employers of any type – including the newspapers that provide such databases – would do it for their own employees (although they clearly have the data). Although UC has gone along with the wholesale disclosure of salary and pension data by name, a fuss has now been raised…

|

Would it get under your skin if university administrators poked around in your emails?

Byuclafaculty

Located in Boston, not far from Harvard Some blog readers may recall the brouhaha that erupted at Harvard when some administrators poked around in university emails trying to discover who was leaking info about a student cheating affair.  A dean apparently ended up resigning when the email searching became known.  The Boston Globe is reporting that a Harvard-commissioned report has determined that the administrators were acting in “good faith.”  See http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/07/22/outside-counsel-harvard-acted-good-faith-covert-mail-searches/jvB5oSwd8MZL2m0wlTuLSP/story.html.  A shorter version of the story from Inside Higher Ed is at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#label/subscription/1400ab32f5244acf. Moral: Don’t put anything in email you wouldn’t want made public. Unless, of course, you believe…

| |

Listen to the Regents Afternoon Meeting of July 17, 2013

Byuclafaculty

Most of the afternoon activity of the Regents on Wednesday, July 17, was in closed sessions for which no audio is available.  The main item of interest in the open period was the privacy initiative, noted in an earlier post, which is a work in progress. Afternoon Agenda: July 17, 2013 1:00 pm Committee on Compliance and Audit (open session – includes privacy initiative) 1:30 pm Committee on Compensation (closed session) 1:45 pm Committee on Compensation (Regents only session) 2:00 pm Committee on Governance (Regents only session) 2:10 pm Committee on Compliance and Audit (Regents only session) 2:30 pm Committee…

|

Regents Will Consider Privacy (in Public)

Byuclafaculty

We noted in an earlier post that a preliminary agenda for the Regents’ meeting next week had been posted.  The more detailed attachments for the meeting have now been posted.  One topic to be taken up is UC policy on “privacy.”  At this point, however, it is all processes to set a policy rather than the policy itself.  According to the agenda item, UCLA Chief Privacy Officer Kent Wada is involved.  (Did you know we had a Chief Privacy Officer?  See http://kentatucla.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/uclacpo-ddmemo1.pdf.) The agenda item can be found at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jul13/a3.pdf It’s harder to keep things secret nowadays than it was…