Netscape & Users Privacy

[Peter C. Gorman]

Stephen Hooley writes:

>        Here's the privacy issue: when we were looking in
>c:\netscape\mail\sent, we found some pretty hot stuff, with email addresses
>and names and even physical addresses. Obviously students aren't aware that
>they are copying this stuff to the drive. Anyone can read it using the
>browser. Interesting lives some of these rascals lead, judging by their mail.

For this reason, we've disabled Netscape's mail client on our public
machines. There was another reason as well - we weren't comfortable with
the possibility of users downloading mail to public machines and having it
deleted from the POP server, then getting home and realizing they didn't
have their mail anymore. True, the default is to leave mail on the server,
but if the worst can happen, it will. Fortunately, this does not affect the
ability to email web pages.

Regarding users' search histories, we delete the cache and temp directories
and the history file every time Netscape quits (it automatically restarts
on our machines) - like some others who have replied, we treat search
histories much the same as circulation records. We feel that obnoxious
behavior can be handled adequately without compromising everyone's privacy
interests.


PG
_______________________________
Peter C. Gorman
University of Wisconsin
General Library System
Automation Services
pcgorman at facstaff.wisc.edu
(608) 265-5291