University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Acceptable Use Practices (AUP)
Compliance
The University reserves the right to preserve or inspect any information transmitted through or stored on its computers, including e-mail communications, files, and individual log in sessions, without notice when:
- There is reasonable cause to believe the user has violated or is violating these procedures, any campus guidelines or procedures established to implement these procedures, or any other University policy;
- An account appears to be engaged in unusual or usually excessive activity;
- The user has voluntarily made information accessible to the public such as a web page;
- It is necessary to do so to protect the integrity, security, or functionality of UTC's Technology Resources or to protect the university from liability; or
- It is otherwise permitted or required by law, such as a subpoena or court order.
System administrators or designated security officers will ensure that user authentication is required before access to any specially protected information systems and UTC Technology Resources is granted. All users of UTC Technology Resources agree to the following rules and responsibilities.
- No one shall knowingly or willingly interfere with the security mechanisms or integrity of UTC Technology Resources. Users shall not attempt to circumvent data protection schemes or exploit security loopholes.
- No one shall knowingly create, install, execute, or distribute any malicious code or another surreptitiously destructive program on any UTC Technology Resource, regardless of the result.
- No one shall interfere with the intended use of UTC Technology Resources. All users shall share computing resources (e.g., bandwidth) in an ethical and fair manner and not unduly interfere with use by other authorized users.
- No one shall use UTC Technology Resources to attempt unauthorized use, or interfere with the legitimate use by authorized users, of other computers or networks elsewhere. Users are responsible for adhering to the policies and principles of such networks. UTC cannot and will not extend any protection to users who violate external network policies. Abuse of networks or computers at other sites through the use of UTC Technology Resources will be treated as an abuse of UTC Technology Resource privileges.
- UTC Technology Resources are for use in conducting authorized university business. Using these resources for personal gain or illegal or obscene activities is prohibited. This prohibition against using UTC Technology Resources for personal gain does not apply to scholarly activities, including the writing of textbooks or preparation of other teaching materials by faculty members, as recognized in the UT Statement of Policy on Patents, Copyrights, and Licensing. Consulting and other activities that relate to faculty professional development and that have been approved under the UT External Activities for Pay Policy are also not included in the prohibition of using UTC Technology Resources for personal gain. Although not an inclusive list, examples of illegal or obscene use include theft, fraud, gambling, copyright infringement, sound or video recording piracy, and either viewing or distributing child pornography.
Just as minimal personal telephone use is allowed and is sometimes necessary, employees should use the same discretion concerning the University Technology Resources. Therefore, minimal personal use of non-restricted UTC Technology Resources is permitted by these procedures except when such use is excessive or interferes with the performance of the user's University responsibilities, results in additional incremental cost or burden to the university resources, or is otherwise in violation of these guidelines. Further restrictions may be imposed upon personal use by the user's supervisor, in accordance with normal supervisory procedures concerning the use of University equipment or for the use of restricted systems.
- No one shall perform, participate, encourage, or conceal any unauthorized use or attempts of unauthorized use of UTC Technology Resources.
- No one shall use a system attached to UTC Technology Resources to capture data packets (e.g., “sniffer”) except for authorized or other official University business without prior waiver of these procedures.
- No one shall use UTC Technology Resources to transmit abusive, threatening, or harassing material, chain letters, spam, or communications prohibited by state or federal laws.
- No one shall launch denial of service attacks against other users, systems, or networks.
- No one shall abuse the policies of any newsgroups, mailing lists, and other public forums through which they participate from a University account.
- No one shall connect or allow to connect any computer, access point, network device, or network system to any of UTC’s networks (using e.g., direct connection, direct dial-in access, wireless access, etc.) without employing reasonable and available technical and security standards—which, at a minimum, requires user identification and authentication.
- No one shall misrepresent his or her identity or relationship to the University for the purpose of accessing or attempting unauthorized access to UTC Technology Resources nor misrepresent his or her identity to other networks (e.g., IP address “spoofing”) from UTC Technology Resources.
- No user shall access (e.g., read, write, modify, delete, copy, move) another user’s files or electronic mail without the owner’s permission.
- No one shall use UTC Technology Resources in violation of applicable patent protection and authorizations, copyrights, license agreements, other contracts, state or federal laws, or by University rules or regulations.
- No one shall modify or reconfigure the software, data, or hardware of the UTC Technology Resources (e.g., system/network administration, internal audit) without appropriate authorization or permission.
- No one shall place confidential information in computers without appropriately protecting it. No user shall place protected information in a location where unauthorized persons can view it. The University cannot guarantee the privacy of files, electronic mail, or other information stored or transmitted on UTC Technology Resources.
- No one shall compromise, by action or by inaction, the privacy of others or the confidentiality of the information contained on UTC Technology Resources.
- No one shall make or attempt to make any unauthorized connection to the UTC network.
