CatCard problems raise awareness of privacy issues

Charles C. Labenz Arizona Daily Wildcat Army ROTC Capt. Karl Haas smiles for his new CatCard during the initial sign-up period in the Student Recreation Center.

"The whole disclosure was not a pleasant experience," said University of Arizona attorney Mike Proctor. "But it raised privacy issues to a higher level of consciousness campuswide."

Two weeks ago, UA President Peter Likins appointed Mely Tynan, vice provost for information technology, as the central figure in a new Information Security Council in charge of safeguarding student and employee information. In addition, students and employees formed a CatCard advisory committee to deal with the privacy issues surrounding the identification card.

The controversy blossomed in March, when every student and employee on campus was required to get the new universal CatCard.

Terrence Bressi, a Lunar and Planetary Lab engineer, and physics senior Andrew Tubbiolo began investigating the CatCard after they called MCI Telecommunications Corp. regarding the calling card feature of the new card and were asked to verify their Social Security numbers, Bressi said in an e-mail message distributed to several UA listservs.

"Since I don't do business with MCI and I didn't release my SSN, I asked her (the MCI representative) how she got the information, and she replied it was released by the university," Bressi's e-mail stated.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits schools from releasing "personally identifiable information" without students' concession.

Bressi and Tubbiolo began to look into the matter and started a UA privacy issues listserv for people to discuss privacy issues related to the CatCard.

An uproar ensued prompting numerous apologies by various officials and changes to be made to the card.

CatCard Director Liz Taylor said CatCard officials, in their zeal to streamline services, released the Social Security numbers to MCI only to be used as authorization codes.

UA President Peter Likins ultimately took responsibility for the release.

"We made a dumb mistake," Likins told the Faculty Senate in April. "I take responsibility for failing to recognize it."

Likins then hosted an open forum where he and other CatCard officials faced off with over 100 angry members of the UA community.

"There are some of us in the university community here who are mad as hell that this information was released," said John Barentine, a physics senior. "The administration did such a poor job of handling the situation, and we're not afraid to say that."

Since the fiasco, various campus groups have taken various steps in an attempt to regain the trust of students, faculty and staff.

The Associated Students since passed a resolution stating it wants all staff members to be educated on privacy issues and they want an advisory committee formed to act upon student's privacy concerns.

A CatCard advisory committee was formed to discuss current policies in place and to review new policies and projects. The committee is made up of students, faculty and staff members.

The committee had its first official meeting May 7. Elected chairman Lewis Tenney, a computer production control specialist, called for meetings over the summer to continue discussions on what should be done about the CatCard from this point on.

New comcerns being discussed include issues such as what to do with the picture on the identification card and the database, selling pictures to cardholders or departments and having the Saguaro Credit Union logo on the card.

"If nothing else, this put us in a position to do the things needed to do with respect to protecting people's privacy," Proctor said.