Internet Use Policy

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The Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham expects that all those who exercise this privilege will do so responsibly and has therefore developed this policy statement to assist Internet users in the appropriate use of network technology. This statement is intended to address the use of University-owned computing resources by students, staff, or guests.

Who May Use Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Computing Resources?

All current Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham faculty, staff, and students may obtain an Internet access account through ICTS. The University reserves the right to limit access to its computing resources. Wireless access to the Internet is limited to current students, staff, faculty, and guests who are authorized through an assigned account from ICTS.

When a student is no longer enrolled in the University or when an employee is no longer employed by the University, the ICTS Office reserves the right to delete that individual's accounts and access.

• Internet access rights and usage quota limit to staff will be provided based on their designation.
• Internet access rights and usage quota limit to Students will be provided based on their course of study / special tasks they involved / based on the teacher recommendations.
• Internet access rights to guests will be provided based on the requirement of the guest and approval by HOD and for a specific timeline only.
• ICTS will provide all students and staff with censorship filtered internet and email access
• All incoming and outgoing internet traffic will be logged / monitored by the Network Administration Team.
• ICTS will prioritize Internet access for research and academic purpose.
• ICTS will limit internet access for recreation, entertainment, personal and extracurricular work to all Staff and Students. In special cases unrestricted internet access will be given by recommendation from HOD.
  

Internet Application / Content Filtering

In accordance with the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham IT Acceptable Use Policy, ICTS performs automated application / content filtering on all access to the Internet from its networks. ICTS uses categorization services to allow / block applications and some of the major categories are:

• Potentially Liable
• Bandwidth Consuming
• File Sharing and Storage
• Freeware and Software downloads
• Streaming Media and Downloads
• Security Risk
• Education
• Job Search
• Social Networking
• Games
• News and Media
• Shopping and Auction
• Finance and Banking
• Business

As with any automated categorization process, some applications and web sites may be incorrectly matched and blocked. If you believe that an application or web site has been blocked incorrectly or that something matching the criteria above should be blocked then please contact ICTS Help Desk with details of what you would like unblocked / blocked and your reasons for asking it to be unblocked / blocked. Any request received will be assessed against the IT Acceptable Use Policy. If the request is rejected then you will be informed of the reason for rejecting your request.

Inappropriate uses of Internet access

There are numerous appropriate uses of the Internet: e-mail, bulletin boards and access of information on the World Wide Web, Social Media and Banking etc. The University encourages appropriate use of these resources. All users of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham computing resources are expected to abide by the following guidelines:

Access

• Each user of Internet facilities must identify him/herself accurately when participating in Newsgroups or chat rooms when representing Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham officially.
• Students are reminded that illegal downloading of copyrighted material will not be permitted.
• Bandwidth both within the campus and in connecting to the Internet is a shared, finite resource. Users must make reasonable efforts to use this resource in ways that do not negatively affect other users.
  

Commercial use

Since Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is defined as an educational rather than commercial site on the Internet, the ICTS reserves the right to restrict accounts or individual Web pages which are used for commercial activity.

Illegal use

Users are to refrain from any use of computing resources which is illegal.

Harassing / Obscene material

Internet users at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham are to refrain from displaying or distributing material (text, audio, or video) which is obscene, or harassing, or which is in any way inconsistent with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Statement of Values in any other manner. Displaying or distributing such information will be considered a violation of the University's Statement of Values, which specifically prohibits the distribution of obscene materials and harassment.

Users are to refrain from sending information via e-mail which is obscene or harassing as defined by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham's Statement of Values.

The obscenity standards are as follows:

1. Such materials that they appeal to prurient sexual/ physical interests or violently subordinating behaviour rather than an intellectual or communicative purpose,
2. Materials that lack any literary, scientific, political, artistic or social value.
   

Wasteful use of resources

Users are to refrain from deliberately performing any act which will impair the operation of the computing resources of the University or the resources of any recipient of the information. Such acts include injecting computer viruses, batch programs, "junk mail" etc. Examples of non-course-related work are playing computer games, printing personal material and chatting to personal friends etc. The University does not support recreational computing (including games and video chat) that require the reservation of network ports. In periods of high demand, Internet use may be disallowed in public and wireless facilities.