E-mail Privacy

[Tim Chown]

In <1991Jun12.155230.17992 at mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert at mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

> If something like that happens here, I send a message to the author of the
>message, reminding him of his responsibilities.  I otherwise ignore it as
>information I use.
> Users of this system are warned that email is not 100% private, and that
>in particular the Postmaster may see all failed mail.

I have had a few replies on this, the main feeling being that, as you
say, users should be made aware that e-mail is not secure and that anything
confidential should not be sent without forethought.  They should also
be aware that forgeries are possible and that in some cases messages
will bounce and in a few very rare cases mail may be lost.

As for the students, the feeling was that I should mail them to let
them know I'd spotted the message (because it had failed) but that
I shouldn't mail their tutors;  the "warning" should suffice.  Of
course, they may well have gone off and exchnaged listings on paper
later ...

>  The real question here, I believe, is not related to email.  It is the
>question of whether collaboration should be considered cheating.  This is
>probably the wrong news group.  We are supposedly preparing students to be
>able to function in a real programming job where the ability to successfully
>collaborate with colleagues is an essential requirement of the position.

In most individual courseworks our students are allowed to "talk"
about the assignment, but not to exchange designs, formal specs, 
listings or code fragments.  We have group projects where
collaboration is a must!  

Tim
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