Email

Email

by Mike Masnick




Georgetown Shuts Down Email For 14 Hours After Mailing Out Private Info

from the oops dept

There have been plenty of stories of organizations accidentally (or just stupidly) emailing out private information to people. However, they usually just get beat up in the press about it, make a big apology, and it goes away. However, when Georgetown University realized they screwed up, they shut down their entire email system for 14 hours, while they tried to repair the damage. They stopped the message from going out to undergrads, but it had already been delivered to 3,000 grad students. So, they went into each student's account, and replaced the message with a blank email. While some think it was the proper thing to do to prevent the privacy violation, others think it shows the university has too much control over the email system - and worry what they could do in the future.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Feb 7th, 2003 @ 9:41pm
  • Um, too much control?

    by Jack9

    Are they fucking stupid? Of course the university has complete control over their own email system and all email that passes through. IT'S THEIR SYSTEM. I don't want the governor's staff or the mayor's coffee boy in charge of the university email system, I EXPECT THE FUCKING UNIVERSITY TO MAINTAIN COMPLETE CHARGE OF THEIR OWN SYSTEMS.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Feb 9th, 2003 @ 10:54am
  • No Subject Given

    by keith knutsson

    it was a wise decision by Georgetown

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Feb 9th, 2003 @ 10:22pm
  • Power to do so?

    by Bryan Price

    Yeah, I have to say that since it is their system, they have the ability to do with it as they please. It's not a 1st amendment issue, because they are only changing what their e-mail was about. I would not have wanted to be their net admin during this time.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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