“The Psychological & Counseling Center sent an email out to 468 of its clients on Nov. 10 without blocking the recipients from seeing each other’s names. The content of the email was a satisfaction survey regarding the student’s recent visit to the center. Several students responded to all recipients of the email with sarcastic and angry messages regarding the breach of their privacy.
The PCC notified the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Privacy Office upon realizing their error, and the Privacy Office is investigating the matter, according to a follow-up email sent out to the student recipients. As part of an effort to “mitigate the effects” of the incident, copies of the email were deleted from the inboxes of students who received them.
According to the email, only unopened copies of th e email were deleted, but several students who did open the email reported having the message deleted from their inboxes as well. Students whose messages did not get deleted were advised to delete the message from their inbox and from their trash folders. The Hustler is awaiting a comment from the Office of News & Communications regarding the removal of the emails.”
Author: Sarah Friedman