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“Finger Protocol” Linked to Stalking Incidents
at UM
Over the last three
years, the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan has had
eight separate stalking incidents that appear to be linked to an
Internet network service called “finger user information protocol.”
The people-locator feature enabled someone to identify the user name
and building location, and even the particular computer, of someone
who was logged onto the system. Although there has been no serious
incident as a result of any of the stalkings, Ann Arbor systems
engineer Seth Meyer felt it was time “to make it harder for the
person to find them when they didn’t want to be found.” As a result,
the “Finger” command was deactivated on May 11 as a preventative
measure.
The last stalking
incident occurred in April, and followed the same pattern of
previous incidents, according to Meyer. In all cases, males used the
Finger feature to locate and stalk female undergraduates -- perhaps
classmates or ex-girlfriends -- who were logged on “in residence
halls, at public-computing sites, or at the central campus computing
site.” The victims did not feel threatened enough to go to the
police, yet they did not want other people knowing where and when
they were working. .
Developed in the 1970s
to help campus researchers stay in touch, Finger is now widely used
by large universities for a variety of reasons, including enabling
professors to verify whether a student actually received an e-mail
he claims he never got. Or it can be used to play games such as KAOS
(Killing As Organized Sport), where students must locate other
students and shoot them with Nerf guns. Because of the mixed
reaction to disabling the Finger feature by some groups, University
officials say they will hold a forum this summer to discuss any
public-information and privacy concerns that students and faculty
might have.
Previous to the April
incident, the victims’ complaints made to the Information Technology
Central Services office were viewed as the downside of
public-computing resources and not a serious threat. But now campus
officials acknowledge that these multiple incidents have created a
worrisome trend. “It was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s
back,” remarked Meyer of the April occurrence.
Source:
Chronicle of Higher
Education, May 24,
2001 | 
