privacy

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Harvard Was Shocked and Appalled that Emails Weren’t Private: Now Comes the Aftershock

Byuclafaculty

In an earlier post, we noted a brouhaha at Harvard in which a dean authorized a search of other deans’ emails to determine if any of them had leaked some information about a cheating scandal. Faculty at Harvard were shocked and appalled that such a search could occur. We noted that at public universities, emails you may think of as private really aren’t.  Apparently even at private institutions, the same cautionary note applies, although for other reasons. Even if you use a private email account such as gmail to send messages to recipients at UCLA or any public university, the…

Your collapsing privacy rights…

Byuclafaculty

Prior posts on this blog have noted that public universities such as UC are subject to public records requests under state law.  Such requests can include emails you have sent or received. Some faculty members may be under the impression that if they use personal accounts (such as gmail, etc.) or a home computer, their emails are not subject to such requests.  Note, however, that emails sent from personal accounts to public ones would clearly be subject to public records requests.  Moreover, a recent court decision suggests that emails sent from personal (non-public) accounts can be requested as long as…

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Harvard is Shocked and Appalled that Emails Aren’t Private

Byuclafaculty

We have noted that at public universities such as UC, emails you may consider private might be demanded as part of a public documents request.  At private universities, of course, those external rights of the public to see such material doesn’t exist.  However, in this day and age, nothing online can be assumed to be private.  Recently, Harvard faculty and deans were shocked and appalled to find out that the powers-that-be in the administration were snooping in deans’ emails to find a leak:  From the Boston Globe: Harvard College issued a partial apology and a lengthy statement this morning offering…

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Your records are more public than you think

Byuclafaculty

Almost two years ago, we noted that public records requests can be used to harass faculty doing research someone doesn’t like.  If you were at Stanford or USC, your records would be more protected than at UCLA because those institutions are private.  Emails, data sets, etc., are potentially at risk.  Our earlier post is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/04/u-of-wisconsin-email-case.html Yesterday, the Daily Bruin carried a story about an Academic Senate task force formed in late 2011 which is looking into this question at UCLA.  Apparently, the task force is going to release a final report soon.  You can find the story at: http://dailybruin.com/2013/02/28/task-force-tackles-concerns-on-public-records-requests/In the…

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More on Posting of All UC Salaries

Byuclafaculty

In an August 8th op ed entitled “Our Next Governor Must Weigh in on State’s Right to Shield Personal Data” in the Sacramento Bee, senior editor Dan Morain reports on attempts to protect Internet privacy. Basically, the piece notes that high-tech firms take the position that the state should not get into the business of providing regulatory protection. Instead it should be left to the federal government so that there will not be 50 different regulatory schemes. You can read the op ed at http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/08/2943054/dan-morain-our-next-governor-must.html Morain takes a sympathetic view of the need for privacy and notes that the California…

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Posting Salaries

Byuclafaculty

As is well known, state salaries are posted on websites available from such sources as the Sacramento Bee. You can go to the Bee website and find salary by name of a particular employee, including UC employees. Last October, I wrote an op ed for UCLA Today asking why the Bee thought it was a good idea to publish state salaries by name which could encourage identity theft or other abuse. The Bee could have alternatively provided the basic information using just job titles, pay distribution charts, etc., that would not identify individuals. See http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/documents/areas/fac/hrob/bee-post.pdf I asked the Bee why…