With the ongoing revelations of former defense contractor, Edward Snowden, and other recent events surrounding the activities of the United States intelligence community in general, and the National Security Agency in particular have been under a lot of fire from some American citizens. PEW Research Center recently published a survey that showed that 17% of Americans claim to be “very concerned” about this surveillance, while 35% say that they are “somewhat concerned.” The government has been deemed overly invasive and people have begun doing things like creating stronger passwords, encrypting information on their computers and/or phones, or paying cash rather than using a credit card all in order to avoid government surveillance. Yet, intelligence agencies are not the only one collecting information. Even before this, the information age, universities have been a prime example of surveillance and information gathering systems. This report (can be accessed by using the link at the end of the post) shows various information gathering systems at the University of Utah. Due to time constraints and manpower limitations, this report does not attempt to identify or discuss all the surveillance systems in operation at the University. A list of persons interviewed for this report is attached as Appendix A. We wish to thank those University employees and administrators for their openness in meeting with us.
Selected Information Gathering Systems at the Univeristy of Utah