Blog #4: AUGs and Losing The Battle for Privacy
It seems to me that Acceptable Use Policies seem to be treated with the same attitude as Terms of Service, although an AUG seems more precautionary than exploitative. They make perfect sense for any institution, especially public ones. Since public resources are so unrestricted, it stands to logic that they would be misused more due to the sheer higher numbers of different people using them.
I took a look at Dominican University's Acceptable Use Policy, originally effective on February 22, 2023 but soon will be updated next year on the same date in 2026. I don't know much about AUG's but it seems fairly standard. To be sure, I compared Dominican's AUG to the six key components David Dewirtz listed in his article on Kajeet:
Citation for above screenshot: Dewhirst, David. "Why Acceptable Use Policies Are Critical for Education." Kajeet, https://www.kajeet.com/en/blog/why-acceptable-use-policies-are-critical-for-education.
I don't want to go one by one because that seems kind of boring, so in a nutshell, Dominican University's AUG hit every criteria (although Definitions is debatable; there is no formal Definitions section, but it defines each term in the AUG quite well, especially the violations) and seems to be designed to promote usage. In fact, a direct quote from the AUG is: "This policy is intended to encourage, instead of discourage, the use of computing resources at Dominican University by providing a framework for acceptable use".This AUG is set to be updated next year, which I believe it does need; there is no mention of AI whatsoever, as well as perhaps rules about VPNs. It's possible for people who may doing something unethical or illegal to create a VPN, a randomized IP address that disguises the location of their web activity. Lastly the policy clearly defines the AUG as pertaining to students, vendors, and contractors, but does not apply to faculty.
That incredible episode of Reply All, entitled the Snapchat Thief, further reinforced how screwed we are on the issue of privacy. The way that phone numbers could be bough and sold, and then used as the lynchpin to get all of someone's personal info, then use it to threaten them, is beyond chilling. When they brought cybersecurity expert to show how easy getting all the host's information, I shuddered. That part really creeped me out.
But how does that relate to AUGs? The best way I can tie it together is to wonder about any illegal activities or scams being run out of university or public libraries. After all, there's a lot of resources, a lot of people using those same resources, and its always easier to hide in a crowd. AUGs may be helpful, but it's more boots-on-the-ground IT workers that will notice bad actors.
Citations:
Goldman, Alex, and PJ Vogt, hosts. "#130 The Snapchat Thief." Reply All, episode 130, Gimlet Media, 8 Nov. 2018. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/130-the-snapchat-thief/id941907967?i=1000423456775.
Dewhirst, David. "Why Acceptable Use Policies Are Critical for Education." Kajeet, https://www.kajeet.com/en/blog/why-acceptable-use-policies-are-critical-for-education.
Dominican University. "Acceptable Use Policy." 22 Feb. 2023, https://www.dom.edu/sites/default/files/2023-03/Acceptable_Use_Policy_2022.11.14.pdf.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Dominican's Acceptable Use Policy. It's great to hear it will be updated soon. Most don't list something like that!
ReplyDeleteDominican's AUP lists 17 bullet points of don'ts unlike Chicago Public School's (CPS) 30 don'ts for students. I wonder if there is an AUP for staff. CPS's AUP for staff included a longer list of 37 unacceptable uses. I do like that there is a review of Dominican's AUP next year. CPS's AUP has not been updated since 2019! Although the IT department does keep the staff informed of constant dangers out in cyberspace, they need to revisit polices that affect students and staff on a daily bases. I listened to Reply All's podcast episode, What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished? I agree with you on how creepy hackers can easily have access to our information if you are not careful enough.
ReplyDeleteWould you recommend that episode too? I loved the one I listened to, the Snapchat Thief. It turned out surprisingly wholesome too. Does the one you listened to talk about how they target the elderly? My grandpa got fooled by a fake phone call and he was getting a lot of them before he moved.
DeleteI do recommend that episode. Unfortunately, it does not talk about how the elderly are targeted. It focuses on how easy it is to get phished in the workplace. I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. I talk to my mom often about scams online and over the phone.
DeleteIt makes sense to compare AUGs to Terms of Service as they each lay out how services should be used, but you are right that Acceptable Use Policies are more precautionary. Although, similarly, I think AUGs are designed to push blame off of themselves like a ToS. It's interesting at lot of Acceptable Use Policies don't seem to mention AI yet, probably because it's so new and not a lot of organizations may understand it. However, I would think most schools and universities would include it due to how generative AI can be misused for cheating.
ReplyDelete