Policy
Please make sure you read and understand the following five points as they contain important information about the University's policy on use of computing and network facilities.
The University provides all students with access to computers and the network, and with an email account as a communication channel between staff, students and peers. In order to protect the functionality and integrity of the facilities, please use them responsibly and within the following guidelines to avoid the risk of severe penalties.
Disclosure of Personal Information
Never release personal information, such as passwords, your address, phone number, date of birth, or credit card or banking details, to anyone over email. The University will never solicit that information from you via email, and will never ask you to send a password in an email.
Please be wary of email scams, especially phishing emails, i.e. deceptive emails which may pretend to be from your bank or the University. The intent of phishing emails is to trick you into providing the phisher your personal information so that they can assume your identity - typically in order to use your bank account, or your University email account.
Be wary of unsolicited emails, especially those purporting to be from the University, banks and other financial institutions.
Do not provide any sensitive information, follow any links, download or execute attachments in unsolicited emails. Please report any such emails via the Self-Service Portal, or call the IT Service Desk (+61 3 8344 0888).
Refer to System Status to find out more information about any potential changes or issues that are occurring related to systems or services.
Spam
The University's student email service has a spam filtering system. Generally it is not possible to take action against spammers unless the spam falls within the provisions of the Spam Act 2003. However, the University does act against University personnel who send spam. Particularly, the use of student mailing lists by students to advertise books for sale or books wanted is spamming and does lead to penalties.
Copyright
The University forbids the use of its computing and communications facilities for any purpose which is a breach of copyright (for example, by running peer-to-peer music sharing software). Any allegation will be investigated by the University, and, if you are responsible for copyright infringement, you would face the possibility of civil or criminal court proceedings as well as University discipline.
More information about copyright and your rights and obligations is available from the University's Copyright website.
Consequences of Misuse
Misuse of IT facilities is treated seriously by the University. Disciplinary action is taken under Provision and Acceptable Use of IT Policy (MPF1314).
An example of misuse is inappropriate use of student mailing lists, such as advertising to buy or sell textbooks. This usually results in suspension from certain IT facilities for a period of time - typically two weeks for a first offence. The services suspended are email and Windows logins. The loss of Windows logins will deny you access to full-function library computers and laboratory computers on campus. Online teaching and learning resources remain available to you from off-campus computers, and from on-campus computers that don't require a Windows login.
Privacy
Your personal information is managed under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). Personal information is recorded information that identifies a person or could reasonably be used to identify them. All personal information collected by the University is governed by the University's Privacy Policy.