Legal and Ethical Issues
- Adhere to NC State Computer Policies, Regulations, and Rules.
- Don't use e-mail for unlawful activities, commercial purposes or personal financial gain, except where academic policy permits financial gain.
- Don't use e-mail in violation of other University policies; e.g., harassment, copyright violations.
- Don't use e-mail to give the impression that you represent the University unless you are authorized to do so.
- Don't share your account or your password with anyone.
If you give someone else access to your account, you are breaching security, and you could be held liable for offenses you did not commit. Protect your account by changing your password at least annually and by using passwords that are not easily guessed. See Your Unity Password for more details. - Don't violate copyright laws
Be careful not to duplicate and send copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder. - Don't send abusive or defamatory messages.
Laws relating to written communication also apply to e-mail messages. This includes the laws relating to defamation, obscenity, fraudulent misrepresentation, freedom of information, and wrongful discrimination. - Report abusive or defamatory messages
If you receive an e-mail that you feel is overly annoying, harrassing, or abusive, save it and report the incident to the NC State Help Desk. - Remember that your e-mail messages are NOT private.
It's easy for someone to forward your message to someone else, so be careful about what you write. Be aware that anyone, anywhere with an e-mail account could potentially read your message. - Respect the privacy of other people's e-mail.
- Protect the confidentiality of information you inadvertently encounter in e-mail or other records.
- Don't seek out, use, or disclose personal or confidential information unless you are authorized to do so.
- Don't access or disclose other people's e-mail.
- Don't broadcast e-mail messages unnecessarily.
- Verify suspicious or alarming messages.
Check with the sender if you have any doubt about the authenticity of a message. Before you forward a disturbing or alarming message, check online to see if it may be a hoax. Snopes.com is a good resource. - Don't send chain letters.
Chain letters annoy most users, waste technical resources, and are potentially illegal. - Don't interfere with the system.
Don't knowingly disrupt University electronic mail and other services. Don't knowingly interfere with other people's use of e-mail.
Orig. Posted: Wed, 03/11/2009 - 09:39 — cawalker.ncsu.edu Last Modified: Tue, 07/21/2009 - 09:07