MIT Is Still Working on Its Response to Aaron Swartz Case – Wired Campus - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is still trying to figure out how to answer criticism of its response to the controversial federal prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the hacker and activist who was arrested on the MIT campus in 2011. On Thursday university officials charged with reviewing MIT’s existing policies and practices flagged several ways the university could do more to protect digital privacy and encourage open-access publishing, according to an update from MIT’s news office. But no action has been taken. Instead of advocating specific policy changes, the working groups recommended that other committees decide what should happen next. Last summer a team of investigators led by Harold Abelson, a computer-science and engineering professor, concluded that 'the world did not see leadership' from MIT, which remained neutral as federal agents prosecuted Mr. Swartz, then a fellow at Harvard University, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Mr. Swartz killed himself early last year. Some people, including his father, Robert Swartz, still hold MIT partly responsible. Since Mr. Abelson’s report was released, MIT has been trying to figure out how to regain credibility as a leader on the issues raised by Mr. Swartz’s advocacy and by the government’s prosecution of him. One area of possible reform is how the university handles digital records that are automatically generated as a student moves through the network or the campus, such as network logs and access-card swipes. Mr. Abelson’s report cited “some gaps” in the university’s electronic-records policies that allowed federal agents to collect more digital breadcrumbs from Mr. Swartz than they might have otherwise ..."