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IT Help and Support

University Information Services
 

This web server maintains logs of all requests made to it. These logs are kept for the purposes of system administration, detection of attempted misuse, bug tracking and usage statistics. The infomation is kept for 8 weeks on disc and for a further 4 weeks on backup tapes.

The format of these logs may change from time to time, but they contain only data derived from the headers of the HTTP requests and responses.

The web server provides an interface to the Jackdaw database, which has its own privacy policy. Many of the pages on this server provide interactive access to the database.

Some of these pages, such as the University's e-mail directory, query the database, but do not change its contents. Accesses to these pages are logged only as mentioned above.

However, other pages, such as this one, allow people to make changes to the database, after they have explicitly identified themselves. Such changes are also logged in the database. These logs are are kept indefinitely in case a query arises in future as to who made the change and when. The log entries include a time stamp, details of the change, and a record of who the person making the change claimed to be.

Relevant information from both types of log may be passed to computer security teams as part of investigations of suspected misuse of the Web server or database system.

Otherwise the logged information is not passed to any third party except where required by law.