the swarthmore college computer science user agreement

The Computer Science (CS) systems (computers and network) are provided for computer science research and study at Swarthmore College. We want you to use these systems in good faith. Below are some examples of acceptable and unacceptable use. It is not meant to be exhaustive.

You, the user, must:

• Respect the rights and privacy of other users: access only files and data that are your own, are publicly available, or to which you have been given authorized access.
• Be considerate in your use of shared resources: make economic use of CPU time, GPUs, network bandwidth, disk space, printer paper, and other resources.
• Take reasonable steps to protect your account, including not sharing your password or account with another person.

You, the user, must not:

• Use another person’s user id, password, files, or data, without express permission from them.
• Use software in unauthorized attempts to decode passwords or other encrypted data.
• Attempt to circumvent or subvert our system and network security measures.
• Engage in any activity that might be harmful to systems, or to any information stored within them, such as creating or propagating viruses, disrupting services, or damaging files.
• Use mail or messaging services to intentionally harass, intimidate, or otherwise annoy another person.
• Engage in any other activity that does not comply with the principles presented here or the general rules of the College.

We, the faculty in this department and system administrators of these systems, will:

• Make a reasonable effort to provide consistent access to the resources of the Computer Science Department.
• Not interfere with use of the systems, except in emergency situations or unless announced in advance.
• Not violate the privacy of a user’s files or transmissions except in emergency situations, including but not limited to suspected break-ins, suspected security violations, suspected viruses, or illegal activity.
• Abide by the user rules given above, but reserve the right to copy and/or examine files that are suspected of being related to unacceptable use of the system.

Please note that email and other files are not guaranteed by the computer science department to be private – please observe precautions when using these systems, especially when using it in conjunction with the Internet. The sysadmins reserve the right to cooperate with other sysadmins by providing necessary data when the CS machines are suspected of causing or being a recipient of unacceptable activity.

Misuse of this system and its services may result in loss of computing privileges, demands for financial restitution, and/or disciplinary action depending on the severity of the offense.

If you have any questions about the acceptable use of the CS systems, please ask a system administrator or professor first, before doing anything. To ask, please email local-staff at cs.swarthmore.edu

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