Current State Introduction

Currently, Stanford students, faculty and staff can access personal student information via the Stanford network.  For example, students can access each other’s home and school addresses, class schedules, and email activity logs; they can associate a particular student with a specific computer terminal and so determine his/her physical location in addition to what applications (s)he is running. Some students may find such access privileges undesirable, if not objectionable, thereby raising potentially serious issues and concerns about privacy on campus. 

We investigated the computer and network privacy at Stanford.  After providing a brief overview of the network and the systems involved, we identify and expose various tools and activities that can be used to reveal information about a student’s background and current academic work. 

Realizing that we are exposing ways students may violate each other’s privacy, we present this section with hesitation.  Our intention is not to cause problems by equipping students with the know-how to violate each other’s privacy.  Rather, we hope that exposing these risks will assist Stanford in its efforts to afford its students better privacy protections, while at the same time encourage Stanford students to do more to better protect themselves.