E-mail Privacy

[mike.stefanik]

In an article, braun at dri.com (Kral) writes:
|In an article, chooper at cc.curtin.edu.au (Todd Hooper) writes:
|>
|>Personally, I totally ignore the 'subject' header of bounced mail. In this
|>case, I would have ignored it as well. It is the job of academic staff to
|>uncover plagiarism - not mine.
|
|How is this different from:
|
|	"It is the job of the police to deal with robberies, not mine (so
|	I won't report this obvious burglary I'm seeing to the police)"
|
|	"It is the job of the police to deal with rape crimes (etc)".

It is all a matter of degree... in my book, a burglary or rape is something
that is a) an act against society at large, b) entails substantial bodily
threat to one or more persons.  I wouldn't tend to lump a cheating freshman
in with the above catagories.

IMHO, reading someone elses mail is unethical, tasteless and vulgar.  Period.
The simple fact that the mail is electronic rather than written on paper is
irrelevant.  The problem is not with the medium -- it is with the ease of
access to the information on the medium by "administrators".  Of course, it
is easily within the power of developers to write a secure mail system, whereby
only the bona fide recipient can read the mail ... 
-- 
Mike Stefanik, MGI Inc., Los Angeles -- Opinions stated are never realistic!
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men." -Lincoln