In May 1995, Waseda University declared that “the protection of personal information is a fundamental right that has its origins in the integrity of the human personality”. The Private Information Protection Law was established, which has as its aim the appropriate collection, management, use and protection of the personal information of students, faculty and staff. The university works to administer this law properly under the supervision of the Personal Information Protection Committee, an independent organization.
Against this background, Waseda University’s Information Security Policy was created in September 2002. This policy defines the information that must be protected within the computers and network administered by the university. Following that, additional attention was drawn to these issues with the creation of the “Guidelines for Creating Contents Used on the World Wide Web by WIND” (Waseda’s Internet Domain) in November 2003, and “Handling Written Materials in a Web Context for Educational or Research Purposes” in March 2004.
Under these conditions, the Private Information Protection Law has been fully implemented since April 1, 2005. This university also utilized this opportunity to distribute the leaflet “You and Information Security-Personal Information and Copyright”, which was directed at students, faculty and staff. This leaflet was based on the thinking that it is not only necessary to protect ones own personal information, but it is also essential that the privacy of others with regards to information must not be violated. Here, by clarifying personal responsibility with regards to various types of information and recognizing anew the significance of information security, efforts to provide information security as administered by Waseda University will continue to be promoted in the future.
