Synopsis:
OIT has increased student privacy within Dormnet; netIDs have been removed

Solution:
Dormnet is a service that allows Princeton students who own computers access to the Internet and campus network from their on-campus living spaces as well as academic buildings. All currently-enrolled Princeton University undergraduate and graduate students are eligible for Dormnet.

Like most Internet Service Providers (ISPs), OIT associates a unique name, called a hostname, to every computer on the network. Members of the University community have expressed concern about the accessibility of student information that can be obtained by the use of generally available tools that link an IP address a hostname.

A person's privacy can be jeopardized by web sites that keep detailed logs of every page viewed, including an individual's IP address which can then be associated with a hostname.

OIT has changed the way hostnames are assigned in order to enhance student privacy.

The change to remove the netID from the Dormnet hostname required significant changes to several hostmaster functions including mobile IP and TUD.

The Host Database is accessible to machines attached to the campus network, but not viewable to the general public over the Internet. One of the objectives of the Dormnet name change project was to insure that anyone having access to the host database have access to the information that connects a Dormnet IP address with the subscribers netID. IP address and hostname information is required to be published as part of the operation of the campus network such as Domain Name Service (DNS) but that information does not contain e-mail addresses or netIDs.

For more information and further details, please see: Dormnet subscriptions to be renamed to remove netIDs.