Conditions of Use of IT Facilities at LSE

For the purposes of these conditions of use, the "IT Facilities" are any of the LSE's IT facilities, including email, the internet and other networks, and all computers, laptops and related software and hardware.

By accessing and/or using the IT Facilities, you agree to be bound by these Conditions of Use including all documents referred to in them, and you agree to adhere to the requirements of all applicable statutory regulations and provisions.

Your attention is particularly drawn to the section on working practices and the penalties including expulsion / dismissal from the School for breach of these Conditions of Use.

Working practices

1. Owing to the nature of IT systems, software and the internet, IT Services cannot guarantee the continuous availability of the IT Facilities and/or the data saved on those facilities. You should save your work regularly, and take frequent back ups of data either in hard copy form, to removable media, or to a non-LSE system.
   
2. The School has IT security systems in place, but cannot guarantee that these will prevent every attempt to access confidential or restricted data. You must ensure that confidential material is password protected and/or encrypted as appropriate to prevent unauthorised access by third parties.

General

3. You may only use the IT Facilities for commercial activities if you are an employee of the School and such use forms part of your duties of employment. You should raise any queries on whether a commercial activity using the IT Facilities is permitted with your line manager before commencing the relevant use of the IT Facilities.
   
4. You must not carry out any action (including loading any software on to the IT Facilities) that shall or may interfere with the normal working of the IT Facilities or may interfere with or disrupt other user's use of the IT Facilities or access, corrupt or modify any other user's data without their consent.
   
5. You must not deliberately introduce a virus, worm, trojan horse or other similar code nor take any action to circumvent, or reduce the effectiveness of, any anti-virus precautions established by IT Services.
   
6. You are responsible for all use of your username. You should not make your username or password available to anyone else nor should you use any other person's username.
   
7. You must not send unsolicited emails to multiple recipients, and must not create or distribute materials using the IT Facilities which are designed or likely to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
   
8. You must not install or play games on the IT Facilities.
   
9. You must not tamper with the configuration of any LSE PC or any cables or peripheral devices attached to PCs.

Legal Requirements and Prohibited Uses

10. You must not use the IT Facilities in any way that could expose you or the School to any criminal or civil liability.
    
11. You must use the IT Facilities in accordance with the following:

• software - software should always be used in accordance with the terms of the relevant licence, and copying software without the licence holder's permission is prohibited. You must observe the Code of Conduct for the Use of Computer Software at Higher Education and Research Council Establishments, a copy of which is available from IT Services.
• rights in content - do not use third party text, images, sounds, trade marks and logos (all of which are protected by intellectual property rights) in materials such as emails, documents and web pages without the consent of the author. There are limited exceptions where consent is not needed. For more details consult IT Services.
• offensive material - you must not use the IT Facilities to access, store or distribute material that is obscene, indecent or pornographic. If we suspect that you have accessed material that might give rise to criminal liability, we may notify the police.
• discrimination and harassment - you must not create, distribute or access material that is unlawfully discriminatory, including on the grounds or sex, race, disability or religion; that is likely to incite any form of violence or hatred; or that is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
• computer misuse - unauthorised access to accounts (including stealing or misusing a password), programs and/or data and all forms of hacking are prohibited, and may be an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
• defamation - you should take care to avoid content which may be defamatory. Particular care is needed when posting material to newsgroups. It is best to assume documents such as emails may become known to other users. Such material may be subject to the requirements on the School to disclose documents under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
• personal data - data on living persons must be held and processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Persons who hold personal data are, with few exceptions, required to notify the Information Commissioner of details of their processing of data, which must in any event be in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Act. Student users must not construct or maintain files of personal data for use in connection with their academic studies/research without the express authority of an appropriate member of staff. When giving such authority, the member of staff should make the student aware of the Act's requirements, inform them that they must abide by the data protection principles, and of the appropriate level of security arrangements which should attach to a particular set of personal data. Contact the School's Data Protection Officer for more advice on notification and the implications of the Act.
• formation of contracts - you should note that it is possible to form contracts electronically, without any hard copy confirmation from the user. Care should be taken to obtain appropriate authority before purporting to commit the School to any contractual obligations (which may include clicking 'I agree' to an online dialogue box) and the wording 'subject to contract' should be used on emails where appropriate.

Personal use

12. The IT Facilities are made available for you to use principally for the purpose of your work or studies; however, we realise that you may occasionally want to use the IT Facilities for your own purposes. You are only allowed to make personal use of the IT Facilities if such use:

• does not interfere with the performance of your work or studies;
• does not incur unwarranted expense on the School;
• does not have a negative impact on the School; and
• is otherwise in accordance with these Conditions of Use.

Consideration for other IT users

13. You must show consideration for other users of the IT Facilities. For example, you must not use an LSE machine for social email in a computer room where other students are waiting to use the facilities for academic purposes.

Internet Publishing

14. If you publish information on web pages on the Internet using the IT Facilities, you are subject to additional regulations. In particular, you must comply with the Code of Practice for the Publishing of Information on the LSE World Wide Web Server, a copy of which is available from IT Services.. Any use of cookies on websites should be accompanied by a notice informing users that cookies are being used and giving users the option to disable cookies.

Monitoring and privacy

15. The School acts in accordance with applicable legislation and the Information Commissioner's Employment Practices Data Protection Code, notably in relation to the monitoring of communications.
    
16. The School undertakes some routine monitoring of activity on the IT Facilities to ensure that they operate correctly and to protect against the risk of harm from viruses and other known threats. This does not normally involve the monitoring of personal communications or the disclosure of the contents of any user files.
    
17. The School may monitor your use of the IT Facilities, including emails sent and received and web pages visited:

• to protect the IT Facilities against viruses and hackers;
• to assist in the investigation of breaches of these Conditions of Use, as described in paragraphs paragraphs 18 to 22 below;
• to prevent or detect crime or other unauthorised use of the IT Facilities; and
• where such monitoring is necessary, to pursue the School's other legitimate interests, for instance by reviewing the emails of employees on long-term sick leave.

Disciplinary regulations and enforcement

18. If you use the IT Facilities in breach of these Conditions of Use, the School may take disciplinary action. In particular, the following types of conduct are likely to result in disciplinary action:

• all illegal acts using the IT Facilities, including those set out in paragraph 10 above;
• sending of unsolicited emails to multiple recipients;
• sending of emails that any member of the School reasonably finds offensive; and
• deliberate interference with the normal working of IT equipment, facilities or services.

19. Where an allegation has been made against a student under the Regulations on Assessment Offences: Plagiarism or the Regulations on Assessment Offences: Offences Other Than Plagiarism, the School shall have the right to inspect and take copies of any material held in the name of that student on any of the IT Facilities that might provide evidence for or against the allegation.
    
20. Where an alleged breach of these Conditions of Use is brought to the attention of IT Services, all reasonable measures will be taken to investigate whether the allegation is justified and, if so, the necessary steps will be taken to prevent further abuse. This may involve inspecting the contents of a user's files or email messages.
    
21. Inspection and copying of a user's files shall only be undertaken if authorised by the Director or a Pro- Director. All reasonable efforts shall be made to avoid inspection of files not connected with the relevant allegations, and such files will be copied only if the Director or a Deputy Director is satisfied that such a step is unavoidable.
    
22. If a complaint or allegation is received your account may be immediately suspended for investigation. Penalties for breach of these Conditions of Use may include temporary or long term suspension of your access to the IT Facilities, and/or other disciplinary penalties up to and including expulsion from LSE in the case of a student or dismissal from the School in the case of staff. The School may refer the user to the police where appropriate and will co-operate fully with any police investigations.

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