Beware The Campus Police

geisler writes: "According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a professor at Virginia Tech had her computer seized so that university police could try to track down someone who emailed her. She was denied the chance to backup before the computer was taken, and there seems to be some differences in stories between her and the authorities."

Comments

Bahhh!

[Deanasc]

The university owned the computer and it was returned. So this is really just a lesson in always backing up important files before the unfortunate event. Not after.

What's next? Nobel Prize Contending research lost when hard drive crashed.

Employers right to access company hardware trumps any privacy for the employee. The police were just doing their job. What if they let her erase important evidence?

Like it or not campus police work for the college and represent the authority of the college in these matters. I say good job.

Re:Bahhh!

[Bouncings]

This is different. First of all, owning something does not give you unlimited access to it. My land lord cannot summarily inspect my apartment. If I lease a car, Toyota can't take it back at any given time. Ownership alone is not justification, by any means.

Secondly, the police weren't just doing their jobs, they were doing their jobs poorly. Typically campus police are the worst of the police force and have authority issues. They were investigating ONE EMAIL and needed her entire computer? That's not very reasonable. Does your ISP take your computer away to investigate an email? No.

If I sound biased, it's because I am. I've observed that campus police don't have real jobs for a reason. Anyone who spends five minutes with one of these people cannot retain respect for them, IMHO.