Procedure No. 401.1

Acceptable Use of Technology

Adopted: 1/20/2021

Revised: 6/29/2023

Area: Information Technology Services

Governance: President’s Cabinet

Responsible Executive Authority: Chief Information Officer

General Use and Ownership

  1. Atlantic Cape Community College proprietary information stored on electronic and computing devices whether owned or leased by Atlantic Cape Community College, the employee, student or a third party, remains the sole property of Atlantic Cape Community College. You must ensure through legal or technical means that proprietary information is protected.
  2. You have a responsibility to promptly report the theft, loss or unauthorized disclosure of Atlantic Cape Community College proprietary information.
  3. You may access, use or share Atlantic Cape Community College proprietary information only to the extent it is authorized and necessary to fulfill your assigned job duties.
  4. Employees and students are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding the reasonableness of personal use.
  5. For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within Atlantic Cape Community College may monitor equipment, systems and network traffic at any time.
  6. Atlantic Cape Community College reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.

 Security and Proprietary Information

  1. Providing network access to another individual, either deliberately or through failure to secure its access, is prohibited.
  2. All computing devices must be secured with a password-protected screensaver with the automatic activation feature set to 10 minutes or less. You must lock the screen or log off when the device is unattended.
  3. Employees and students must use extreme caution when opening e-mail attachments received from unknown senders, which may contain malware.

Academic Use

  1. Online proctoring systems and applications are acceptable within the Atlantic Cape Community College academic environment for the purpose of identity verification and protecting the academic integrity of online tests and assessments under the following conditions:
    1. Students must provide college or government issued photo ID.
    2. All online proctoring recordings will be kept no longer than the established Academic and Instructional Technology department retention policy of 18-24 months.
    3. Students must enable camera and microphone during the assessment.
    4. Students must meet all technical requirements for the online proctoring solution.
    5. Faculty must disable the room scan feature during the assessment activities.
    6. All course syllabi must document the use of the online proctoring system with references and links to additional information for the student. The student must acknowledge and accept the use of the system.
    7. If students request that the online proctoring system not be used for reasons of security or privacy, the faculty is required to find an alternative reasonable solution accommodating to both parties.

Unacceptable Use

The following activities are prohibited. Employees may be exempted from these restrictions during the course of their legitimate job responsibilities (e.g., systems administration staff may have a need to disable the network access of a host if that host is disrupting production services).

Under no circumstances is an employee or student of Atlantic Cape Community College authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal or international law while utilizing Atlantic Cape Community College owned resources. 

The lists below are by no means exhaustive, but attempts to provide a framework for activities which fall into the category of unacceptable use.

A.     Email and Communication Activities

  1. Sending unsolicited email messages, including the sending of "junk mail" or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (email spam).
  2. Any form of harassment via email, telephone, or texting whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.
  3. Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.
  4. Solicitation of email for any other email address, other than that of the poster's account, with the intent to harass or to collect replies.
  5. Creating or forwarding "chain letters", "Ponzi" or other "pyramid" schemes of any type.
  6. Use of unsolicited email originating from within Atlantic Cape Community College networks of other Internet/Intranet/Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by Atlantic Cape Community College or connected via Atlantic Cape Community College's network.
  7. Employees and students are prohibited from making any discriminatory, disparaging, defamatory or harassing comments prohibited by Atlantic Cape Community College’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy.
  8. Employees and students are prohibited from revealing any Atlantic Cape Community College confidential or proprietary information, trade secrets or any other material.

B.     System and Network Activities 

  1. Violations of the rights of any person or company protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property, or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by Atlantic Cape Community College.
  2. Unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including, but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books or other copyrighted sources, copyrighted music, and the installation of any copyrighted software for which Atlantic Cape Community College or the end user does not have an active license is strictly prohibited.
  3. Accessing data, a server or an account for any purpose other than conducting Atlantic Cape Community College business, even if you have authorized access, is prohibited.
  4. Exporting software, technical information, encryption software or technology, in violation of international or regional export control laws, is illegal. The appropriate management should be consulted prior to export of any material that is in question.
  5. Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).
  6. Revealing your account password to others or allowing use of your account by others. This includes family and other household members when work is being done at home. 
  7. Using an Atlantic Cape Community College computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws in the user's local jurisdiction.
  8. Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any Atlantic Cape Community College account.
  9. Making or participating in security breaches or disruptions of network communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the employee or student is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that the employee or student is not expressly authorized to access, unless these duties are within the scope of regular duties. For purposes of this section, "disruption" includes, but is not limited to, network sniffing, pinged floods, packet spoofing, denial of service, and forged routing information for malicious purposes.
  10. Port scanning and Security Scanning with the intent of hacking, disruption or theft of data is expressly prohibited unless prior notification to Atlantic Cape Community College ITS department is made.
  11. Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data unless this activity is a part of the employee or student's normal duty.
  12. Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
  13. Introducing honeypots, honeynets, or similar technology on the Atlantic Cape Community College network.
  14. Interfering with or denying service to any user (for example, denial of service attack).

C.     Student Activities 

  1. You will not post contact information about yourself or any other person that is not course related.
  2. The receipt of any message you feel is inappropriate or makes you feel uncomfortable should be reported to college authorities immediately.
  3. You will not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any college computer system or go beyond your authorized access by entering another person’s account number or accessing another person’s files.
  4. You will not use another individual's Computer Lab ID, nor will you grant usage of your ID to another individual.
  5. You will not install any software on computer lab equipment.
  6. You will not reconfigure computer hardware or software unless directed to do so by your instructor as part of the course. You may not engage in duplication of any applications installed in the Computer Labs.
  7. You will not eat or drink beverages of any kind in the labs in order to protect the equipment.
  8. You will not deliberately attempt to disrupt the computer system or destroy data by spreading computer viruses or by any other means.
  9. On any and all uses of the Internet, whether in application to public or private messages or material posted on the Web pages, you will not use obscene, threatening, or disrespectful language. You will not post information that could cause danger or disrupt or engage in personal, prejudicial or discriminatory attacks.
  10. While in the labs, do not engage in behavior that may be disruptive or offensive to others.
  11. When class is in session, students not enrolled in that class are not permitted in the lab without the instructor's permission.
  12. You will not repost a message that was sent to you privately without permission of the person who sent you the message.
  13. You will use the system only for educational and career development activities.
  14. You will not use Atlantic Cape’s computer facilities for profit or commercial gain.
  15. You will not download large files unless absolutely necessary. A “large file” is anything more than 5-10 megabytes. If necessary, you will download the file at a time when the system is not being heavily used and only to your own storage device – not to the system’s hard drive.
  16. You will check your college supplied e-mail frequently, deleting unwanted messages promptly.
  17. You will subscribe only to discussion group mail lists that are relevant to your education or career development.
  18. You will not abuse printing resources through excessive printing of educational documents, making multiple copies, scanning.
  19. You will not plagiarize words that you find on the Internet. Plagiarism is taking the ideas or writings of others and presenting them as if they were yours.
  20. You will respect the rights of copyright owners. Copyright infringement occurs when you inappropriately reproduce work that is protected by copyright. If work contains language that specifies appropriate use of that work, you should follow the expressed requirements. If you are unsure whether or not you can use a work, you should request permission from the copyright owner. Direct any questions regarding copyright law to the Librarian.
  21. You will not use the system to access material that is profane or obscene (pornography) or that advocates illegal acts, violence or discrimination toward other people (hate literature). A special exception may be made for hate literature if the purpose of the access is to conduct research with teacher approval.
  22. If you mistakenly access inappropriate information, you should immediately tell the Lab or Instructional Aides or your teacher. This will protect you against a claim of intentional violation of this policy.
  23. Your right to free speech as set forth in Atlantic Cape's disciplinary code, applies also to your communication on the Internet. The Internet is considered a limited forum, similar to the college newspaper, and therefore Atlantic Cape may restrict your right to free speech for valid educational reasons. Atlantic Cape will not restrict your right to free speech on the basis of its disagreement with the opinions you express.
  24. You should expect no privacy of the contents of your personal files on the system. Routine maintenance and monitoring of the system may lead to discovery that you have violated this policy, the college code, or the law. An individual search may be conducted at any time at the sole discretion of college administration. The investigation will be reasonable and related to the suspected violation.
  25. The college will cooperate fully with local, state, or federal officials in any investigation related to illegal activities conducted through Atlantic Cape's networked system. In the event of a claim that you have violated this policy, the college disciplinary code, or the law in your use of the system, you will be given notice of suspected violations and an opportunity to present an explanation according to college code and/or state and federal law. Additional restrictions may be placed on your Internet access through Atlantic Cape.