"The system administrators at Harvard can readevery person's e-mail over the [network] and a lotof people don't realize this," Kim says. "That's abig issue that's going to grow a lot bigger asmore and more people sign up and get accounts."
But others say it is not possible to defineclear rules for regulation technology as dynamicas the network. Richard S. Steen, acting directorof HASCS, says a "spirit of etiquette" is all thatis needed to regulate the system, and morestudents agree.
"It's very hard to be explicit and still coverall the things that come up," says James S.Gwertzman '95, the student representative to theFaculty of Arts and Sciences committee oninformation technology. "I feel perfectly happyrelying on Harvard to maintain the spirit offreedom of information."
Other students, however, worry that in theabsence of clear rules, members of the Ad Boardlack the knowledge of the network needed toadjudicate cases involving electronic wrongdoing.
"The biggest problem is the lack of awarenesson the part of Harvard's Ad Board," Kim says. "Ifyou don't understand how the computer works,you're not going to understand a lot of thecontext of the ethical issues."
But Virginia L. Mackay-Smith '78, the Ad Boardsecretary, disputes that claim. She says thedisciplinary body has used members who arecomputer experts to set up an ad-hoc committeewhich reviews cases involving computers.
Mackay-Smith also says the student-facultyjudicial board is likely to see cases in the nearfuture that will help the College refine itspolicy.
"We are seeing more computer-related cases andit concerns up because computer use is deceptivein our culture," says Mackay-Smith, who adds thatfewer than five computer-related cases have madeit all the way to a full Ad Board hearing. "Itseems very familiar-you use words, you send mail,you draft documents, these are all things whichwe've done in other contests. But the mechanism iscompletely new."
But HASCS has more control than the Ad Boardover how to punish student abuses of the network.
HASCS personnel can sanction students withoutconsulting the Ad Board either by shutting offaccounts or limiting students' access to thenetwork whenever they see fit. HASCS usually putsthe account of a student accused of wrongdoing onhold, Steen says.
Mackay-Smith says that "99 percent of the time"it is HASCS that discovers student infractions.And it is up to the network man agers to refercases to the Ad Board.
Some wonder if playing network cop is too bigof a job for HASCS, which has been plagued by twinproblems of overworked employees and inadequateresources. Others worry that the programmersemployed by the computer service have too muchaccess to the system already.
"A lot of wrinkles need to be ironed out of thesystem and HASCS hasn't done it yet," Kim says.
The broad discretion given HASCS, coupled withthe University ambiguous rules has many studentsconcerned.
Says, Ho, the computer society businessmanager: "I don't believe that Harvard really hasany good standardized rules for any of this."
While many students push for greatersecurity, no one is sure just what such securitywould entail. Some functions possible over thenetwork fall in a category that make themdifficult to regulate.
For example, anyone can search the current mailqueue-the list of messages waiting to bedelivered-for a specific undergraduate's name,identify when and to whom that student has sentmail, not the size of the mail message andrecognize the message's delivery status. But asmessage delivery speed increases, messages willspend less time in the queue, making it moredifficult to monitor, them.
Certain commands also make it possible forstudents to check to see when their friends are onthe network. But it also lets undergraduatesmonitor each other in a manner that some sayresembles stalking.
Regulating these kinds of arrangements is oneof the reasons writing rules on network securityis tricky. Harry R. Lewis '68, co-chair of the FAScommittee on information technology, acknowledgedas much during a panel discussion at the LawSchool last October.
Said Lewis: "One of the most difficult thingsto get right in phrasing rules is how to balancethe expectation of privacy in the communicationand storage of information on networked computerswith the need to be able to investigatedestructive behavior."