Email Monitoring Statement
Introduction
The use of email is governed by legislation; and also by the University's regulations for the proper use of computing and networking facilities(1), and the JANET Acceptable Use Policy(2). Information on the legislative framework may be found at (3)
The Department operates email systems for the convenience of its members. This statement indicates the policy for normal operations of the Departmental email system, and describes situations in which email events are monitored and logged during those operations. Users should be aware that the Department might additionally be required to monitor specific emails in the course of criminal or disciplinary investigations.
Policy
It is the intention that:
- bona fide mails will be delivered to their intended addressee, or, where this is not possible, an appropriate non-delivery report sent to the sender.
- specific forms of abuse will be detected, and an appropriate
report issued to the sender to indicate the reason for
rejection.
These abuses comprise:
- Unsolicited Bulk Emails (popularly known as "spam")
- Attempts to use our mail servers to relay third-party mail
- The sending of potentially dangerous "active attachments", as
deprecated by campus email
guidelines.(4)
All email transactions are logged, for the purpose of investigating transmission irregularities which only come to light after a delay; these log entries may contain time-stamp, originating email address and sending system; recipient e-mail address and mail system; message id, size.
Messages exhibiting irregularities which are detected by the mailer will also give rise to an exception log report: exception log reports can contain the full headers of the mail. The actual content of mails is not logged.
Log entries are kept for approximately two months to assist in diagnosing delayed reports of problems; after which the logs are discarded.
Mails are also automatically scanned for the purpose of identifying abuses under the above headings.
Messages which fail, or which are automatically rated as abuse, are likely to be viewed by the postmasters to determine the proper disposal: the postmasters thus may inevitably become aware also of the content of the message.
Implementation Summary
This statement shows the context and policy under which the mailer operates.
The technical details of the implementation may vary, within the scope of the policy set out here, according to circumstances and experience. A general description of the technical procedure will be provided by the postmasters.
This Statement authorized by the Head of Department after consultation at the ASC meeting of 21 Dec 2001.
(1) http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/computing/regulations/
(2) http://www.ja.net/services/publications/policy/aup.html
(3) http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_inform1.aspx#11_underSurveillance
(4) http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/it/regulationscommitteesandpolicies/general/guidanceontheuseofe-mail/
Editorial note:
The notes about technical procedure may be found on this website or from the Faculty IT Office.The University offers guidance to its policy within the legislative framework etc. at: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/information/index.html and its associated documents.