By MELINDA SEMADENI
melinda@du2.byu.edu
While email is an increasing form of communication for students, faculty and professionals, people are questioning its limits of privacy.
Some concerns with email privacy are the interception of email messages, unsolicited email (spam), email forgeries and spoofing, and an insurgence of email hackers.
BYU offers a university email office box for each student through Route Y on the campus intranet. BYU's intranet was instituted in August 1997, a year after President Bateman issued administrators the challenge to electronically enable campus.
T.J. Humphries, manager of Network Security for University Computing Services, said email functions encounter similar problems as traditional mail.
'You can misrepresent yourself with email just like traditional mail. It can be sent from a mailbox anywhere, and it's easy to forge. Don't expect any privacy with email,' Humphries said.
Layne Peterson, business manager for BYU's Communications Department, said with email you never know where your message will end up.
While checking a shared folder on the public domain server, Peterson found an email saved on the hard drive written by a subordinate with strong anti-establishment tones. Peterson said it was just out there for anyone to see.
'In a business context, if you're using email for anything other than business correspondence that's non-confidential, then you shouldn't use it,' Peterson said. He added if it is confidential, you shouldn't use it at all.
'In some email programs, with access to your password, someone could then change your preferences so that a blind copy of all your email will be routed to them without your knowledge,' Peterson said.
Another problem is that email messages are often damaged en route.
'It's possible persons can retrieve unprotected mail, like at home. As it goes through the system it could be damaged or get messed up,' Humphries said.
Humphries emphasized the need for appropriate use of email and said BYU as a practice does not monitor email, unless a message bounces back to the postmaster or a complaint is made. Humphries said the university reserves the right to do so, since it is their own system.
Steve Baker, director of the Honor Code Office, said BYU's definition of 'appropriate use,' is in line with the Honor Code. Baker said the Honor Code applies to email and the Internet whether it's on or off campus.
While email may be instant and cheap, privacy experts suggest precautions should be taken. According to the Electronic Frontier Freedom's 'Privacy Now!' Web site (http://www.eff.org/goldkey.html), only encryption tools can provide privacy in the electronic world.
Privacy Now advocates liken encryption to an electronic version of an envelope that could prevent others from reading email in transit.
Steven Silberman's article in February's Wired News discusses Web-based email and anonymity. Silberman quoted Eric S. Raymond, an author of a remote mail retrieval system, who said, 'Email security is nonexistent anyway unless you use a strong end-to-end encryption method.'
Although privacy is not ensured with email, Brad Stone, director of development for Information Technology Services, offered suggestions for email use.
'Use common sense with email. Don't do anything over email that you wouldn't do in person,' Stone said.
Peterson suggests if the information you need to communicate is confidential, to send an email to say you need to speak with the person, rather than disclosing everything online. Peterson added you often don't know who is opening a person's email.
While issues of privacy and email continue to surface, experts say education about on-line privacy rights and protective methods could help decrease the risks of violations of privacy.