Editorial: Student privacy at risk

March 7, 2008

Have you ever looked at those frightening identity theft posters that hang in every post office? They’ve got an angry-looking biker pasting his photo over a sweet old lady’s on her driver’s license. Most students ignore them because the possibility of anyone (much less a particularly ugly member of the Hell’s Angels) actually stealing their identity seems pretty far off. But the situation is less implausible than we’d like to think.

Mark Oleson, who resigned as the Director of the Office of Financial Success on March 2 following his Jan. 31 arrest on suspicion of stealing from MU, is probably best known to students as the writer of the “Financial Tip of the Week” e-mails. Most students, though, probably aren’t aware of his arrest or his resignation, and therefore don’t recognize that the newsletters they are still receiving from him with financial planning tips are a little strange.

The newsletter, which looks nearly identical to the one that Oleson sent out before his resignation, is not affiliated with MU. But the list of e-mail addresses, which he took with him after his resignation, is the same as it was before. The information in the e-mails is still related to financial planning and fiscal responsibility for students, but it has probably not been checked by anyone but Oleson and is by no means secure.

We’re only left to wonder how this could have happened and also what other student personal information or records have been subject to such violations of privacy. Someone having access to our e-mail addresses isn’t so bad, perhaps, but security is a slippery slope. If someone were to ask for personal information, many students wouldn’t know the difference between a look-alike newsletter and an official one from MU. Many might unknowingly consent to give away their Social Security numbers or bank statements.

The administration must immediately put the brakes on a potentially harmful situation. The first appropriate move to make is to publicize the fact that the newsletter Oleson is now sending out is in no way sanctioned by the university. The second is to put a stop to it. No one who is not an employee of MU should have this kind of access to lists of student e-mails, or any other information, for that matter. Lastly, this should never happen again. It is obvious that our records should be better tracked, and there should be plans put in place to deal with former employees’ access to the university’s digital property. In this age of identity theft, where the Internet makes it so easy to take advantage of others, no measure of privacy can be too strict.

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Editorial: Student privacy at risk

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