I know a reasonable person would never respond without reading the article. Any comm enter doing otherwise would be acting like a complete idiot, right?

So I guess the link is only broken for me?

Wake me up when employers have access to personal email and i’ll fetch my pitchfork.

Just because something is published on a website, doesn’t make it all right.

Well, that’s axiomatically true.

I believe that if my employer is paying for the computer, the power, the Internet access, the room, the heat, the lights, and my salary–and they tell me in advance that they may one day look at something I produced while they were paying me to produce it–all while using their stuff–I’m perfectly okay with that.

If they assign somebody to watch me real-time while I’m producing it (either on the computer, or via camera, or over my shoulder) I would not be okay with that, and I would find another job.

It would be like kicking up a stink that the company you work for has access to your filing cabinet.

I don’t think we need to treat academics like the precious flowers they think they are.

Then maybe we should think about elevating everyone to a status deserving of respect for privacy instead of dragging everyone down to the level of cogs in the machine.

This is pretty standard practice everywhere these days.

As moral defenses go, that’s one of the limpest ones that I’ve ever seen. What does it matter if it’s standard practice if it’s wrong?

The very first thing I see when I boot my employer-provided computer is a splash screen that says that I have no right to or reasonable expectation of privacy when using that computer.

Just because something is published on a website, doesn’t make it all right.

The email may have contained information that the sender, or in a vaguer sense the institution, wished to keep confidential. It probably didn’t include an explicit reference to keeping it in confidence but assumed the recipients would exercise good judgement. I haven’t read the Boston Globe article but having read the NYT and Crimson, it sounds like the email was in part about how to advise students who were enrolled in the course and rather than put the advice in their own words, a resident dean forwarded the email to a student. I’m not sure whether that was poor judgement or not.

C. Privacy/Management’s Right to Access Information
Employees must have no expectation or right of privacy in anything they create, store, send, or receive on Harvard’s computers, networks or telecommunications systems. Although many employees have individual computers or computer accounts, and while employees may make incidental personal use of University technology information systems, ultimately Harvard University has ownership over, and the right to obtain access to, the systems and contents. Incidental personal use is permitted so long as it does not interfere with job performance, consume significant time or resources, interfere with the activities of other employees or otherwise violate this policy, the rules of an employee’s local unit, or other University policies. Electronic files, e-mail, data files, images, software and voice mail may be accessed at any time by management or by other authorized personnel for any business purpose. Access may be requested and arranged through the system(s) user, however, this is not required.

D. University Confidentiality
University records or information that employees create, maintain, access or store in the course of performing their jobs may include confidential and/or proprietary content. Given the sensitivity of such information, care, judgment and respect must be exercised to preserve individual privacy and to protect the University’s interests. Each employee is accountable for organizing and controlling access to information and data created or maintained by their office. Information may be shared or accessed on a limited, need-to-know basis, with consideration and ethical regard for others. In addition to these University requirements to keep information private there are a number of government laws and regulations that require specific types of data be kept confidential.