🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <PANDY.92Aug4090223@vipunen.hut.fi>, Pandy@hut.fi (Pandy Holmberg) writes:
|> -> directory without the user's permission? It would kinda be like rummaging
|> -> through a person's house without a search warrant....
|> 
|> 	No, it wouldn't. Root usually has read rights to all files
|> 	in the computer. This way, they aren't "private" or "locked"
|> 	from the root's point of view.

Technologically, you are correct.  However, since root's read ability
overrides even an explicit read access denial action on the part of the
user, the organization must decide where root read access falls on the
privacy spectrum. Is it a condition of being granted access to a
computer system and hence root can use it anytime without seeking the
consent of the user, or is it a special privilege that should only be
used when necessary, and if possible, the user's consent should be
obtained first?  If the organization has decided (consciously, not
merely ending up there) to operate on the condition of access end of
the spectrum, then a search warrant model or analogy is irrelevant.
However, if the organization decides to operate at the special
privilege end of the spectrum, then using some analogy to a search
warrant is consistent with that operating decision.

|> 
|> 	(Of course, this doesn't mean root should read them unless,
|> 	as in this case, a crime is suspected.)
|> 
|> 	I would say it would be like rummaging through a person's house
|> 	WITH a search warrant...
|> 
|> --
|> ===============================================================================
|>        Andreas "Pandy" Holmberg        Helsinki University of Technology
|>        E-mail: pandy@hut.fi            Computing Center
|> ===============================================================================

-- 
Joseph A. Watters, Jr.		jaw@owlnet.rice.edu
Deputy Director, Owlnet
Rice University
Houston, Texas