Project Conclusion

Based on our study, we suggest that the University place greater emphasis on increasing awareness of student privacy issues through literature distribution and funding.  Students should play a part in their own protection through revealing less information on personal webspace, utilizing “Stanford.Who” to control what information is shared with Stanford community members and what is shared with the outside world, specifying access permissions to “Read-Only” when sharing files, and when using cluster computers, being mindful not to give sensitive information (which may be cached via cookies for example), closing browser windows, and making sure to logout from MacSamson sessions.  Regarding legal and policy issues, Stanford officials should:   limit what types of subpoenas can warrant disclosure of student information; establish a formal interpretation of FERPA, educate students, faculty, staff and system administrators about it, and put it into practice in a timely fashion; and expand Stanford’s Principles of Privacy in the University to address computer and network privacy issues to protect students from other students, faculty, and staff.   Furthermore, the Security Office should keep an audit log to ensure proper use of access privileges.  Finally, Stanford’s official privacy policy should be revised and made easily accessible in the next two years.

Regarding future studies, we first suggest gathering/analyzing comprehensive data on a larger, more diverse sample of the student body and provide a more thorough analysis of the data.   Second, we suggest another study that would serve to gauge students’ willingness to forgo convenience in favor of increased privacy protection (e.g., disabling “zlocate” at the cost of locating a friend or contacting a teaching assistant during office hours).  The authors of the study are making an effort to continue with these further studies.

In our attempt to increase student awareness of computer and network privacy issues, we are distributing the study’s abstract to incoming first-year students.  We hope that Resident Computer Coordinators will direct their residents to our website to inform students of what they can do to better protect their privacy.

We hope to encourage other universities to inspect student computer and network privacy issues and to make serious attempts to improve student privacy protection on their campuses.