With fast Internet comes great responsibility. Many students have taken advantage of the network’s speedy Internet service since arriving on campus. Since all students have received warnings about peer-to-peer sharing and breaking copyright laws, uncertainty about how the University monitors network traffic is a cause for keeping a wary eye on the lookout for potential privacy invasions.
But that’s just not the case, according to Mark Hoit the vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer for the Office of Information and Technology at N.C. State, who points out his employee are far from spooks.
“We do not monitor [students’ Internet] for anything,” Hoit said. “Unless there is a request or a police investigation, nothing is monitored. We are not the FBI.”
The OIT is responsible for enforcing University rules as well as assisting copyright holders to catch students who break the laws. If a student downloads copyrighted materials illegally and the copyright holders see this activity, the copyright holders will contact the OIT with the IP address the illegal activity was seen on. The OIT then forwards that email to the student assigned to that IP address.
If a student receives that notification, he or she must follow the instructions in the email to confirm the email was received and that the proper steps have been taken to ensure that the violation does not happen again. The email does not mean that the University is taking any actions against the student.
“We receive about 300 notifications a month from copyright holders,” Hoit said. “When we get that notice, we send it to [the student]. We are just watching out.”
Another rumor about the OIT is that they would prosecute students who watch pornography, legal or not. This is entirely false – students are safe to watch whatever they want, as long as it is legal and no one is being disturbed.
“If they are following the computer use policy and what they are doing is legal, then they are allowed to do it,” Hoit said.
Hoit emphasized that the OIT does not monitor anything. However, Connor Nordstrom, a freshman in political science, said he assumed they did monitor the Internet on campus to some degree.
“I thought there was some level of [monitoring],” Nordstrom said. “But I didn’t think they watched everybody’s computers at all times.”
Dustin Briggs, a senior in paper sciences and engineering, said he doesn’t trust the OIT because he doesn’t know enough about them.
“I heard they can monitor any email sent or received from the campus email,” Briggs said.
This is another false rumor. The OIT has the ability to monitor the Internet on campus, but only if absolutely necessary.
“Students’ email is private unless they violate the computer use policy,” Hoit said. “If we get a subpoena from the police, we can look at their email. OIT does not access [anything] without a violation and permission to collect.”
Bradley Yelverton, a sophomore in environmental technology, knows the OIT doesn’t monitor campus Internet – not because they can’t, but because there are just too many students.
“A lot of students go here and there is a lot of information on the students,” Yelverton said. “So I do trust them to keep information safe.”
Hoit advises students to adhere to copyright laws at all times.
“Peer-to-peer sharing is for the most part illegal,” Hoit said. “A fairly large amount of the time, the [people sharing files] are unaware that what they are doing is illegal.”
Downloading music is a sure way to get into trouble with copyright holders. Hoit said copyright holders will put baited songs, honey pots, on the music download websites that have a tracking program built into them. This way, the copyright holders will be able to catch more people. Another common way to get caught is by uploading your music to illegal websites.
“Most often, it’s when your songs get shared that you get caught,” Hoit said.
Currently, students in dormitories are on a 300-megabit per second Internet connection. This means when a student downloads something in the dorm, it is downloading at a rate of about 300 million bits per second. That is a fast connection, but Hoit said the OIT has plans to increase the capacity even more.
However, with even faster Internet comes even greater responsibility.
N.C. State computer use regulation regarding monitoring:
2.4. The University may examine the content of personal electronic information stored on or passing over University IT Resources, including resources of an external provider, for any of the following purposes: 2.4.1. To ensure the security and operating performance of its IT Resources. 2.4.2. To enforce University policies or compliance with state or federal law where examination is approved in advance by a Dean, Vice Chancellor or Vice Provost, and either 2.4.2a. there is a reasonable suspicion that a law or University policy has been violated, and examination is appropriate to investigate the apparent violation, or 2.4.2b. examination is necessary to comply with a state or federal law. 2.4.3 To investigate particular issues before bringing them to the University Institutional Review Board (IRB). 2.4.4 To conduct an audit. 2.4.5 To comply with E-discovery rules relating to an actual, threatened or potential lawsuit, with a subpoena, or with other court orders.
Source: OIT website: oit.ncsu.edu
