The ethics of email

In March 1996, American Libraries featured a piece about a librarian at the University of California/Irvine whose supervisor intercepted her e-mail while she was absent on medical leave. As a result of this action, UC's Office for Academic Computing began a review of e-mail privacy on the nine-campus system. The issue of e-mail privacy discussed in this essay concerned me in my many roles - as a librarian; as a (then) employee of an American university; as a former library systems administrator; as someone who holds a doctorate in communication studies; and as a female researcher in harrassment issues. I am hardly alone in my concerns. The noted software entrepeneur Bill Gates has expressed his concern over threats to privacy in the electronic age: " 'Information at your fingertips', a Microsoft motto, is the promise of the electronic age. But we need to be careful about what information and at whose fingertips." (Gates 1995, 7)