Re: Gmail for students and IMAP

[Michael Sinatra <michael () RANCID BERKELEY EDU>]

> Jim Dutcher wrote:
> > On a related note...especially for schools who host their email
> > internally...does your school have as part of its policies, to ensure
> > that all email correspondence is kept private?

Yes.  This is a University of California systemwide policy.

> > Not subject to
> > inspection?

Only in very extreme circumstances.  It's even pretty difficult to get
permission read deceased persons' emails.

> > To clarify, I did not mean to imply that this behavior is rampant, but it is there.

"there" could always also = Google/Microsoft/name-your-outsourced-vendor
here.  They don't have policies as strict as we do.

On 07/29/09 21:22, Cal Frye wrote:

> That said, we have switched to Google Mail, across the board, and we
> know that our policies are not enforceable outside of contract law with
> Google. It is a calculated risk, and we have an explicit policy which
> warns folks of the insecurity of having their data stored in Google
> Apps. The costs of dealing with the ever-increasing load of spam made a
> strong argument.

I think the spam load can be dealt with, given a paid subscription to
Spamhaus and judicious use of Spamassassin.  But I agree that the
carefully-crafted privacy policies of your institution go out the window
when you out-source to Google.

> Personally, I have a hard time understanding how I can have someone else
> do a job for me I used to do, and make a profit on it, while still
> overall saving me money. But then again I used to be adjunct faculty, so
> I'll grant it's not impossible ;-)

But not terribly likely.

michael