Eugene E. Kim '96 said yesterday thateliminating the "w" command would be an"overreaction."

"I am against that," said Kim, a formerpresident of HCS. He says that Steen is dealingresponsibly with privacy issues and called theavailability of the log file an "honest mistake."

Gwertzman said he was not opposed toeliminating the "w" command but said he wishedthere was another way of dealing with the issue.

Kim said that computer privacy is a "rising"issue at Harvard and in the outside world.

"We are in a transitional period," he said. "Asmore and more people get onto the Internet, theseare issues that need to be looked at."

Kim advocates mandatory first-year seminars onthe dangers of computer abuse.

"Just like peer counselors, I think thatfreshmen should be told early on about thecomputers," he said. "The rule is don't doanything on the Internet that you wouldn't bewilling to do in public."

Kim said he disagrees with Steen about the"last" command.

"It's not an invasion of privacy at all," Kimsaid. "It is a very useful command."

Other student leaders say they are unsure howmuch Harvard should restrict information.

"In today's world, I do think there should besome type of control over records of who logged inand where from," Tarr said.

"But there is some functionality with the lastand finger command--it's useful to see if someonelogged in since you sent them e-mail to see ifthey got it," Tarr added. "I don't know what todo."

Kim and others said the real solution to theseproblems is educating users and giving them priorknowledge of what is public and what is not.

"It is all a matter of what is advertised,"said one junior who is recorded as havingdownloaded sexual images. "The key is that Ididn't know that there was a file that recordedthat. If I had known, then it wouldn't be a bigdeal."

"It doesn't appear anywhere in the Harvardliterature," the sixth-year graduate student said."That's more of a concern. Now [that] I know, I'llchange my behavior."