A frequent EMU reader/contributor just forwarded me this message, to which my basic reaction is “are you freakin’ kidding me?!” Here’s the text of that message:
FYI there will be a forum tomorrow (Tue May 20) at 8:30 am on a proposed policy to remove auto-forwarding from the EMU email system.
Some people automatically mail to an external email account (e.g. Yahoo).
If / when this policy is put in place this will not be possible.
The text and some rationale of the proposed policy is at
http://ict.emich.edu/policy/files/drafts/pol21autoforwardedemail011608rev5.pdfThe meeting will be in the Halle Auditorium (ground floor).
Ironically, the named concern is one of security. To quote from the PDF:
The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) is responsible for the confidentiality and reliability of e-mail transactions to and from the University, where this can be feasibly provided by mail servers. Because the content of messages delivered to an account can only be controlled in a limited fashion, auto-forwarded e-mail creates a clear risk to the University by potentially enabling automatic, unintentional delivery of confidential information. It also creates problems with external e-mail providers that view EMU as a source of SPAM when it is forwarded from EMU servers. It is therefore imperative that careful control of automatic e-mail forwarding be maintained.
As it’s stated, I find this proposal outrageous. I am someone who a) has been happily using gmail as the main means of dealing with EMU email for over a year, b) has been doing so with the complete knowledge of ICT folks, and c) had been told that I could continue to do the same with the new system. This seems to reverse all of that.
Apparently, no one in ICT– oops, I’m sorry, DoIT– is familiar with the notion that email is inherently not secure. For example, someone gets a message, forwards it to me, and I cut and paste it and post it to a blog that is read by many many people. What I’m getting at is that it seems to me the issue at hand here is not the actual tool/technology of auto-forwarding, but rather the users who are doing the auto-forwarding. It seems to me that this makes users inherently responsible for this and not DoIT/ICT.
Someone who knows better– please tell me I’m wrong about this. But if someone who knows better tells me that my assumptions about this are correct, then I may very well see you tomorrow morning, and if this goes through, I will most certainly do what I can to stop it/get around it.
