By Brian Johnsrud
Recently, an online email site has been reeking havoc in not only America, but in small communities as well. Hotmail, used by over 50 million people across the globe, seems to have been the major factor in this uproar. Users under this free email service can not only send and receive email, but they can do it from any computer with Internet access. They simply go to www.hotmail.com, type in their user name and password, and Whoosh!! Microsoft passport allows them the capability to communicate to anyone with a computer with complete security against hackers. It wasn't until recently that they developed Microsoft passport, which allows absolutely no one without a password to read a user's mail. It is this security that has attracted many students. Hotmail may be secure, but is what they view totally blocked? Four days ago, a teacher at Big Sandy High School saw a student viewing explicit material through an online e-mail site. Upon further
investigation, they noticed that explicit material had not only been viewed on that computer, but on over ten others through email, mostly Hotmail. At the moment, email is being questioned on being used at Big Sandy High.
Whenever a picture or an email greeting card is opened at an online email service, the computer stores that on its temporary memory. The same happened at Big Sandy High, so every picture or card can be accessed by whoever uses that computer after the user.
"I don't think it's right that someone can view a personal card or something after I've used my computer," said a student at Big Sandy High.
Currently, home email may become a major source of email for students at Big Sandy High School. Of the sophomore class, 86 percent of the students have a Hotmail account, but 36 percent don't have Internet access at home.
Big Sandy is not the only town with this same situation, however. Fort Benton, Shelby, Box Elder, and Havre all have restricted email to only educational purposes for students during school. Box Elder is discussing setting up a central email system, where each student will have an account, such as JohnDoe@boxelderschool.com.
If you went into Yahoo to view a car, for instance, and a picture of a vehicle loads on your screen, that picture is temporarily saved on your computer just by going to that Internet site. All Internet information can eventually accumulate and decrease the performance of a computer. A lot of the pictures (JPEG's) viewed on your computer from any email source or website can be deleted. To access these photos in Windows 95 and 98, you can go to "My Computer", "(C:)", "Windows", and "Temporary Internet Files" and find many unneeded files.
