[Air-l] turnitin issue [and privacy+security of students]

[burkx006 at umn.edu]

I am as concerned about electronic privacy as anyone -- and far more 
concerned than most -- but I am having a difficult time seeing why the 
government would want to access a hash of a student paper, or what might be 
the privacy interests that would be violated if they did.

There is plenty of other stored student data (health records, library 
usage, brower logs) to spend time worrying about.

DLB

On Mar 9 2007, Miraj Khaled wrote:

>--- air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org wrote:
>
>even if we keep aside the ethical and moral
>implications, there are other serious issues to
>consider. namely privacy of the students' and
>surveillance of their works. as turnitin.com is a US
>company, the FBI and other federal agencies can access
>the database under the Patriot act. if that ever
>happens, how can you assure your students that their
>rights aren't being trampled by an orwellian big
>brother agency. shouldn't the students' security be of
>the utmost importance to any faculty member and the
>university?
>
>I am a grad student myself and I fully agree with
>rosanna. fortunately in our university i haven't faced
>to submit anything to turitin, otherwise i might have
>considered suing myself! anyway, there's an insightful
>article in the recent issue of University Affairs
>magazine that looks into similar issue:
>
>  
> http://www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2007/january/academic_libraries_01.html
>
>
>miraj khaled
>============
>Graduate Student
>Simon Fraser University
>
>
>> Message: 6
>> Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 00:57:30 +0100
>> From: "Rosanna Tarsiero" <rosanna at gionnethics.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Air-l] turnitin issue
>> To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
>> 
>> As a student myself (and online instructor), I never
>> plagiarized a paper,
>> and I do know that there are persons that do.
>> 
>> However, the assumption that students need to prove
>> innocent (rather than
>> innocence unless otherwise proven) bothers me a
>> great deal.
>> 
>> I would refuse both submitting a paper to turnitin
>> AND doing supplemental
>> work. In all honesty, I do hope that some student
>> sooner or later ends up
>> suing colleges. Assuming people to be guilty unless
>> otherwise proven
>> violates quite a number of human rights.
>> 
>> Rosanna Tarsiero
>>  
>> "Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him."
>> 
>> --James Allen 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
>> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf
>> Of Mark Warschauer
>> Sent: venerd? 9 marzo 2007 0.50
>> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>> Subject: Re: [Air-l] turnitin issue
>> 
>> I know of no precedent or case law, but this is an
>> issue that is 
>> taken seriously here at UC Irvine. Students are
>> usually given the 
>> permission to opt out of submitting their papers
>> through 
>> Turnitin.com, but professors then require any
>> students who opt out to 
>> complete one or more alternate assignments to
>> demonstrate their 
>> papers were not plagiarized (and those alternatives
>> can be quite 
>> onerous).  See examples at 
>>
>http://eee.uci.edu/faculty/ccopenha/39b-student/turnitin.students.htm
>> 
>> Mark Warschauer
>> 
>> >Dear AOIRers,
>> >
>> >A colleague teaching another course has come across
>> an issue with an
>> >undergrad who refuses to hand in her term paper
>> because the faculty
>> >member's course requires that all papers also be
>> submitted to
>> >Turnitin.com.
>> >
>> >The student claims that this violates her own
>> intellectual property
>> >because Turnitin reportedly keeps copies for future
>> plagiarism searches.
>> >
>> >As a supposed ICT & society "expert," my colleague
>> came to me for advice.
>> >My first thought was horsefeathers.
>> >
>> >However, I am wondering if there is any precedent
>> or case law on this in
>> >Canada or the US. (EU would be too different, I
>> think.)
>> >
>> >I am not interested in the ethics or the morality
>> of Turnitin, but in how
>> >other situations have been resolved.
>> >
>> >Thanks,
>> >  Barry Wellman
>> > 
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>
>
> 
>  
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-- 
Dan L. Burk
Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor
University of Minnesota Law School
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN  55455
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