Recently a reader sent me the following question after reading my post on Dropbox as a backup solution:
I adopted Dropbox as your column suggested. It is wonderful. Now I am wondering about the legalities. There are certain things that faculty are not supposed to use university equipment for such as political work, and research that is not part of our university job. It occurs to me that if I access my Dropbox from the university equipment, the argument could be made (if someone really wanted to) that the university then has rights to that material, or the right to complain about the activity. Any thoughts on this?
I had some thoughts on this question, of course, but I didn’t think my limited experience with university hardware qualified me to offer them—at least not with any authority. But the question does matter to me. As a new faculty member, I just received my first employer-owned laptop, and while I don’t think installing Dropbox there opened me up to any legal reprecussions, I’d like to hear from the wider ProfHacker community on the matter. So, wider ProfHacker community, what do you think? Might an institution look askance at Dropbox installed on university equipment? Must ProfHackers keep separate Dropbox accounts for personal and professional files? Let us hear your thoughts on this question in the comments.
[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user steakpinball.]
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10 Responses to Dropbox on University Hardware: A Reader Question
digilib - November 8, 2010 at 1:29 pm
If there’s a problem putting a particular file on your university-owned machine, then the architecture of Dropbox would cause a problem. All your Dropbox files exist on your local machine(s) and are synced to the copy in the cloud.
ericmc - November 8, 2010 at 1:39 pm
This is just another great example of how our understanding of boundaries can’t keep up with the increasing integration of life via the internet and associated technologies . . . where does work stop and non-work begin?
davidmorgen - November 8, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I specifically asked my IT support person about Dropbox on my university desktop–I had to get him to give me permission to install it, because I don’t have administrative control of my machine–and his only concern was that I not use Dropbox to store any files containing confidential university information, such as information about students. He explicitly told me there was no problem with me using it to keep personal files synced between my work and home computer.
quacker - November 8, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Our university would likely take the same stance as that described by davidmorgen. But as state-assisted public institution, we would take it one step further. Our institution also prohibits personal use of its information resources (e.g., client hardware) beyond what might be described as “incidental.” Thus, routine use of my desktop workstation or university-provided laptop for activities unrelated to my role at the university would be a policy violation. By interweaving personal and institutional information among both university-provided and personally-owned equipment, virtually all of the equipment and data becomes subject to legal discovery in the event of litigation that might involve me. So there is a risk that my personal information might be legally released to third parties without my consent. Ain’t technology grand!
karlstolley - November 8, 2010 at 4:43 pm
@digilib is correct; however, I would probably refer such questions to university counsel rather than university IT. In @davidmorgen’s case, for example, the IT support person’s concerns are unfounded, in my opinion: Dropbox encrypts files both in their stored cloud state and in transfer (see https://www.dropbox.com/help/27 for the official Dropbox documentation). Dropbox is more secure in that regard than your average university computer. (Of course, once Dropbox is synced up, the files living on that computer are as insecure as anything else.)
One could establish an additional layer of security (whether to protect confidential information or personal things from prying eyes) by encrypting one’s own files on a per-file, per-folder, or even per-volume basis within Dropbox; see this post on the Dropbox wiki: http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/IncreasePrivacyAndSafety
Of course, as to whether personal stuff that remains in an encrypted state on a university machine is violating some policy on equipment use–well, I’ll leave for the lawyers to sort out.
toddstanfield - November 8, 2010 at 9:48 pm
One option is to only sync your university related materials to you university hardware. Beta releases of the Dropbox software offer selective syncing options. https://www.dropbox.com/help/175
pelf81 - November 9, 2010 at 8:34 am
Further to ericmc’s question, “Where does work stop and non-work begin?” I have other similar questions, such as “Do you use your university email for non-university related matters?” and “Do you use the university computer/laptop for non-teaching related stuff, such as browsing CNN?”
debbykalk - November 9, 2010 at 11:10 am
Always keep separate accounts! Separate email accounts, separate user accounts, distinct login and password combinations – keep your personal and professional lives clearly demarcated to avoid confusion, embarrassment, and possible disciplinary action.
drjeff - November 9, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Separate accounts are a big problem, too: one PC can only have one dropbox active (at a time), and there’s no quick/easy way to switch. So, for example, if you want to be able to edit files from work at home, they will both have to have the same Dropbox account active. The “selective update” business should address that, so you can tell it to not sync your political activity, for example, to your work PC.
And be aware: if you decide to encrypt your sensitive files on Dropbox (not an entirely bad idea), the unencrypted version will e available for (at least) a month as backup, and pretty much anyone who get access to your PC can access them while you’re waiting for them to cycle out. If you pay and turn on the “packrat” option, I think the old (non-encrypted) versions would be available indefinitely to anyone who knows how to look.
eileenqueen - December 1, 2010 at 7:49 pm
You all make me want to go back to carrying everything in paper form in a briefcase. Ick. I love Dropbox. Maybe I can use that on both work & home computers for work stuff, and some competitor’s version of the same on both machines for personal stuff. ??