Eyes on Your Email

True or false?

• It's illegal for someone to listen in on my private phone calls without my permission. True. Right.

• It's illegal for someone to open my personal mail without my permission. True. Right.

• It's illegal for someone to view my personal email sent from my employee account. True. Wrong!

If you answered true for the third one, consider this. Not only is it legal for the public to view copies of email sent from faculty and staff accounts, but if you use your employee account to send personal email, you may be the lawbreaker.

Welcome to Ethics in Public Service

For instance, employees may make a local phone call home during lunch. There is no cost to the state and, since the call is placed during an employee's break, it doesn't interfere with work. An employee could also post a small notice on the office bulletin board advertising her used car and giving her home phone number; there is no cost to the state (assuming she uses her own paper) and callers are directed to her home phone number.

So, I can send personal email to my friends as long as I'm on my lunch break, right? Wrong.

The same ethics provisions prohibit personal use of electronic mail, computers, networks, Internet access, and electronic bulletin boards insofar as such use is unrelated to any official business purpose. The potential penalty for improper use is stiff: the greater of $5000 or three times the benefit received from using the state resources.

Phone or Email--What's the Difference?

Perhaps it is because email is unlike a telephone call in many key respects. With a phone call, there exists only a record that the call was placed. With email, a copy of the content also exists. With a phone, a user can control who receives the message. With email, once the message is sent, the user loses all control over where the message ends up. Often, the results can be embarrassing for both the employee and the state agency.

These headlines have appeared in local and national papers this year.

For All the World to Read

The above-quoted email message from a Washington state employee was sent to a member of a USENET discussion group. These newsgroups--the electronic equivalent of a bulletin board--focus on specific interests or topics such as fly fishing, soap operas, and sports. Messages sent to a USENET bulletin board can be read and retrieved by any member of the public, including Dave Wickham.

Wickham has created a World Wide Web page entitled "State Employees on the Net and on the Job." Using search tools like Alta Vista or Deja News, he locates email sent from government-provided email accounts and posts the entire message for the public to see.

Like many government watchdogs, Wickham is undoubtedly concerned by the use of state resources for personal purposes. His Web page, with quoted email messages, has been featured prominently in the Seattle print and television media.

Fine. I just won't send any private email to these USENET groups. That way, my personal correspondence can be private. After all, it's my personal business what I write. Right? Wrong.

Remember the Public Records Act

The preamble to the Public Records Act hints at the suspicions that were the foundation for this sweeping citizens initiative passed in 1974: "The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments they have created."

Because state computing resources are paid for with tax dollars, the citizens of Washington have a right to know how their investments are being utilized. Under the Public Records Act, they have the right to view and obtain copies of email created with state computing resources.

But the Public Records Act only applies to public records, not to my private email, right? Wrong.

Because the Ethics in Public Service law prohibits all personal employee use of email, there is no such thing as "personal email" on your UW account that is not subject to the Public Records Act. Unless exempt under some narrowly interpreted exemptions, the public has a right to inspect copies of messages on your state-provided email account.

Under state law, personal email may not be sent using university accounts.

Get Your Own Account

The only way to avoid ethical violations--and the best way to insure that your personal email messages remain private--is to subscribe to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Private email and Internet access can be provided by an ISP at low cost, typically about twenty dollars per month. If you do not have a personal computer, several Seattle-area businesses offer computers and email accounts.

Rethink the Medium for Your Message