E-Mail Reveals Names of 130 Students on Aid

A financial aid officer unintentionally revealed the identities of over 130 students on financial aid Tuesday when a confidential message was sent to them with all of the recipients' addresses visible.

Director of Financial Aid James S. Miller said yesterday that he is "truly sorry" and "it was certainly not our intention" for the addresses of the students to be shown with the message.

"We have used e-mail in the past to notify students en masse, and normally we set up the e-mail so that the addresses are not visible. That is sort of the standard policy," Miller said.

Although he said he did not intend to apologize to the students over e-mail, Miller said he hoped that The Crimson would convey his apologies.

"I regret if anyone was inconvenienced by this," Miller said. "E-mail is a medium we all try to use as carefully as we can."

Miller added that the office tries its best to ensure the privacy of financial aid recipients.

"I don't want it to appear that we take this lightly. We don't want people to think that we treat their information in a cavalier way," he said.

Although Miller said he will "reinforce the need to be careful in the use of a new technology," he said he does not intend to discipline the financial aid officer who made the error.

"Whatever errors we made were made with good intentions," he said.

Student reaction to the error was mixed. The majority of students interviewed said they had not considered the message a violation of their privacy.

"I didn't even think about that," said Andrew G.W. Chung '99.

While Chung said he is not personally concerned about the message, he said he "could see a lot of people getting offended by that."

Other students expressed more concern over the violation of their privacy.

"I thought it was a breach of confidentiality," said one recipient of the e-mail. "It didn't worry me enough to give them a call."

Racquel M. Whilby '99 said she unsuccessfully tried to inform the financial aid office of the privacy breach.

"I called the office today to ask them about it and wasn't able to reach the lady that sent it out," Whilby said. "It's annoying because someone came up to me today to ask me if I was on [the list]."

Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS) Director Franklin M. Steen said in the past, HASCS has worked with campus orga- nizations and departments on using e-mail lists.

Steen said he tries to ensure that the confidentiality of the message recipients is maintained and that recipients cannot respond to each other.

At the same time, because list-users sometimes want the option o displaying the names on an e-mail message, there is no mechanism which can entirely prevent such mistakes from recurring in the future Steen said.

Ultimately, it is the "list-owner's responsibility, to [check] how the mail looks [before] it comes out" to avoid any errors, he said

Steen said he tries to ensure that the confidentiality of the message recipients is maintained and that recipients cannot respond to each other.

At the same time, because list-users sometimes want the option o displaying the names on an e-mail message, there is no mechanism which can entirely prevent such mistakes from recurring in the future Steen said.

Ultimately, it is the "list-owner's responsibility, to [check] how the mail looks [before] it comes out" to avoid any errors, he said

Ultimately, it is the "list-owner's responsibility, to [check] how the mail looks [before] it comes out" to avoid any errors, he said