Responsible Use Policy - Appendix B - Examples of Responsible and Irresponsible Uses
NOTE: As of 3/26/15, this document is being reviewed and will be updated shortly.
Appropriate Uses
Authorized Use
- A student working with a professor uses University computers to set up a web page for his senior project.
- A student, faculty or staff member uses their University account to set up an "unofficial," personal web page with pictures from their summer vacation.
- A student browses web sites not directly related to their role at the University.
- A very ill student gives their password to another student to check e-mail on their behalf.
- A staff member away from campus delegates another staff member to read and respond to e-mail and calendar items in their absence. They provide their login ID and password to the same staff member to permit others to access files in their absence.
- A Cal Poly staff member uses the Cal Poly network to "telecommute" from home.
- Students in a class use a single ID and password to access shared course materials and to complete class assignments. The professor uses the same ID and password to review completed assignments and post new materials.
- At the request of the user, an IT technician logs into the user’s account to repair a problem, but carefully avoids accessing any files not directly related to the problem being diagnosed.
Network/System Integrity
- A student sets up a web site on their computer in the residence halls and grants permission to other users to download via Cal Poly's network some audio/video clips that he created.
- A student makes an intra-campus file transfer to a designated computer in order to share a file that one or more students are using in a class.
- A student creates user accounts on their own computer to allow access to shared files for a group project via the Cal Poly network.
- A student resident runs a web server on their own computer that provides pictures of a recent trip to Tahoe.
- A student uses the Cal Poly network to play online games provided other network users are not adversely impacted.
- A network administrator conducts a port scan of the computers attached to that network.
Commercial Use
- A faculty member uses their Cal Poly e-mail account to communicate with a publisher about a textbook they are developing for a course they teach.
- Posting a notice about items for sale to a newsgroup intended for that purpose or to an off-campus commercial web site, such as e-bay.
- Using Cal Poly e-mail to communicate with potential employers.
- An ASI student club uses its Cal Poly web page to announce an upcoming, approved event for which students will be charged a fee.
- The Cal Poly Animal Science Department uses their departmental web site to display photos of animals to be sold at an upcoming auction as part of an authorized enterprise project. Outside bidders are instructed to e-mail bids to the Cal Poly Foundation.
- A faculty member working as principal investigator on a University approved contract or grant asks departmental staff to convert digital data into the reporting format required by the funding agency.
Electronic Communications
- A student uses their Cal Poly e-mail account to send e-mail to friends and family.
- Incidental personal use by faculty and staff is reasonable provided it does not interfere with assigned work or negatively impact other users.
- With the approval of the department head and using a system alias, an administrative assistant e-mails every member of the department about an upcoming event.
- A faculty member e-mails an assignment to all the students in a course.
- A student, faculty or staff member deletes "spam" e-mail originating from a system other than Cal Poly or responds to the sender and asks to be removed.
- A faculty member creates a web page and includes a link to someone else's web page.
- Using Cal Poly e-mail to apply for an institutional grant.
Copyright
- A staff member is beta-testing software that can fix a problem on another staff member's machine. They contact the manufacturer and get permission to install the upgrade on the other person's machine which has a legally obtained copy of the current product installed.
- A student uses the same commands another person used to create a table on the web.
- A student posts photographs they took on their web page.
- A faculty member incorporates copyrighted materials in their course materials after first obtaining permission of the publishers of the materials.
- A faculty member distributes copies of a brief excerpt from a larger work in class and then retrieves the copies after class is over.
Data Security
- A faculty member retrieves online information about a student in their class. A counselor reviews a student's record in order to counsel them as to which classes to take
- A counselor reviews a student's record in order to counsel them as to which classes to take.
- A staff member uses SIS to generate a report about all the students in the department and their current status for the department head to review.
- With the permission of the user, an IT technician helps to locate and interpret the headers in a harassing e-mail message to determine where the message came from.
- In response to a search warrant or court order, IT technicians secure specified electronic files, including e-mail, stored on University computers to the extent required by the law.
Harassment
- A student working on a computer in a lab creates or downloads one or more images that may disturb or offend others. They remove the images before leaving the facility or relocate to another workstation that is less visible to other users to work on this project.
Political Advocacy
- A faculty member uses University equipment to videotape or broadcast, with appropriate permissions, a live debate between candidates to students in a political science course.
- Posting an opinion about a candidate or issue to a newsgroup intended for that purpose.
- A student running for an ASI office uses a web page to discuss their platform and to collect e-mail addresses of potential supporters. The student uses the addresses to disseminate an e-mail message encouraging them to get students to vote in the election.
- A student uses a personal web page stored on Central UNIX to advocate on behalf of a particular candidate or ballot initiative.
Trademarks and Patents
- Displaying the Cal Poly logo on an "official" Cal Poly web page.
Inappropriate Uses
Authorized Use
- A student gives their login ID and password to a relative or friend outside of Cal Poly so they can post materials to the student's web site.
- A faculty member allows family members to use a Cal Poly account and Internet connection to browse the web and to send e-mail from home.
- An administrator who is not using their Cal Poly account gives their login ID and password to the director of a local non-profit group who uses it to create a web page, send e-mail, etc.
- Without permission, a student accesses a faculty member's computer to view an insecure file containing test questions.
Commercial Use
- Displaying personal items for sale on a web page residing on or transmitted through University resources.
- Displaying commercial advertisements on a web page hosted on University resources.
- Using a Cal Poly account to create and host a web site for a local organization promoting fundraisers and other commercial activities.
- Using a Cal Poly account to operate or conduct non-University related business activities, including financial management, advertising and promotion, correspondence, web sites, etc.
- An administrative assistant supplements income by typing senior projects and master thesis using a University workstation and laser printer in the office.
- A faculty member with an outside consulting business or working on a personal/individual contract or grant not approved by the University makes extensive use of State resources without compensating the University.
- Using the Cal Poly network to "telecommute" to non-University employers.
Electronic Communications
- A Cal Poly user forwards e-mail about a sick child and efforts to raise funds or send wishes or good luck to several other people on campus. The e-mail encourages recipients to pass the message along to as many people as possible.
- A Cal Poly user broadcasts a message on a current topic of interest to several newsgroups or system aliases, none of which have to do with that particular topic. For example, a user posts a message about abortion issues to a newsgroup about English poetry or sends a message about an upcoming student club event to a campus computing committee.
Copyright
- A department buys a single license copy of a software product and installs it on all the workstations in a student computer lab.
- Extensive excerpts from a copyrighted work are distributed by e-mail or displayed on a web page without obtaining the permission of the author/publisher.
- Photographs or images taken from another web page without the owner's permission are displayed on a web page residing on or accessed via University resources.
- In violation of the manufacturer's license agreement, a faculty or staff member installs software purchased for departmental use on their home computer or allows students to borrow software to install on their home machines.
- A student redistributes copies of software, music or other digital materials via the Internet. The student may have legally obtained these materials but does not have permission to redistribute them to others.
- Using anonymous FTP, web sites, web servers, peer-to-peer applications or similar programs to provide access to illegally obtained or copyrighted materials used without proper permissions.
Data Security
- A faculty member is curious about the activities of a student and attempts to read any public access files in that student's central UNIX account.
- A student assistant with access to SIS uses that access to view other students' grades.
- A staff member discloses personal information to a relative of a student who has requested that their information not be disclosed.
- A staff member uses HRS to look up the home address and telephone number of a faculty member and gives that information to a student.
- A faculty member uses SIS to generate a mailing list of students in a specific discipline for the purpose of sending personal mail from home that is unrelated to University business.
- An IT technician repairing a faculty workstation finds classified documents and discloses this information to an unauthorized person or persons outside the University.
- An employee finds a file containing confidential information regarding the choice of a specific vendor to receive a lucrative contract and passes it on to their stockbroker.
- A student assistant working on a staff or faculty computer discovers the final exam for a multi-section class and passes it on to their roommate who is enrolled in that class.
- A technician opens a file containing confidential union contract negotiations and forwards this information to the negotiating team for the other side (management or union).
- A technician is persuaded by law enforcement personnel to disclose information and/or turn over evidence regarding a potential violation without first obtaining a valid legal order.
Network/System Integrity
- Using Cal Poly resources, including the network, to propagate a computer virus, Trojan Horse, worm, and/or denial of service attack.
- A faculty member recklessly initiates a process on Central UNIX that causes response times to slow to a crawl and the system to be taken down and rebooted to fix the problem.
- Hosting an anonymous FTP server.
- Using any program that in anyway disrupts, harms, or infiltrates another computer, such as WinNuke, BackOrafice or a packet sniffer.
- Making extensive use of chat rooms and interactive games on the web, causing network and/or system performance to degrade.
- A dorm resident conducts a port scan of the residence hall network without permission of the network administrator.
- Anyone conducts any port scan of an external network via the Cal Poly network without permission of the network administrators.
Political Advocacy
- A student, staff or faculty member running for a local political office creates a web page to promote their candidacy, which resides on or is accessed via University resources.
- A faculty or staff member creates and uses an e-mail distribution list to solicit contributions, signatures, or other support on behalf of a particular candidate or ballot measure.
Harassment
- Displaying an intimate, suggestive or disturbing image which a reasonable person would consider objectionable as the "wallpaper" or screen saver on a computer that is routinely visible to other students, staff and faculty.
- Repeatedly sending threatening or harassing e-mail or voice mail to another individual.
Trademarks and Patents
- Without obtaining permission in advance, a non-Cal Poly web site displays the Cal Poly logo, displays the Cal Poly home page design, or displays the University name in such a way as to imply University endorsement or affiliation.
- Without permission of the manufacturer, a user beta testing a new commercial software product loads it on a server and posts a message announcing that the software is available to anyone at that location.
