Use of the e-mail Service

2000/06/19 by CSO

These subsidiary rules to Operational Circular Nº5 (OC5) are for CERN's e-mail and e-groups mailing list services.

When a service is offered to thousands of users, the fact that it is a shared resource imposes a certain number of rules that need to be enforced to maintain service quality. Some of these may be implemented as automatic procedures to limit abuse. Some may be detected manually. These rules are in addition to the rules for computer use found in OC5.

Rules

Users of the mail services must not:

  • Send mail bombs – sending the same mail to thousands of people individually. You should use an official mailing list.
  • Send mail SPAM – unsolicited mail, for advertising purposes
  • Send chain letters, forge mail messages or news articles
  • Send offensive or insulting e-mails.

Privacy

As outlined in OC5 it is regarded as an abuse of the CERN computing facilities for persons to attempt to access other users' data. Users of the mail system should nevertheless be aware that there can be no guarantees given concerning the privacy of dispatched e-mail. Misaddressed or poorly addressed mail may be delivered to the wrong person or be handled by an unknown postmaster at another site.

CERN gives no undertaking to guarantee the privacy of e-mail.

In order to ensure the smooth functioning of the service, CERN grants the administrators of the Mail service the right to intercept e-mail messages and examine any e-mail communications at any time, in the course of performing their duties as administrators of the Mail service.