Free Wisdom Online: The Berkeley Directory

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A little over a year ago I discovered that Berkeley makes available on
the Internet (at <http://directory.berkeley.edu>) contact information
for all people associated with Berkeley which includes email
addresses. This information is available to anyone on the Internet,
not just to those inside the UC system or accessing it from outside
with via a proxy. The email addresses are shown as text rather than
graphics and, as I discovered, the system isn't smart enough to
monitor traffic and shut off computers that attempt to collect too
many addresses. ("Too many" as in "all.") So, if you want a list of
23,864 email addresses to spam - help yourself. Yes, they let you
remove your address, but something tells me that the majority of the
people who have their addresses on the site don't even know that it
exists.

I tried raising those concerns with the administration, but they
didn't seem to see a problem.  They pointed out that Berkeley provides
students with a notice about the directory on page 21 of the printed
course schedule.  Raise your hand if you've ever seen a _printed_
course schedule at Berkeley.

I then thought that maybe I would get administration's attention if I
actually successfully retrieved the addresses.  After writing a python
script and letting it run for a while, I came into possession of
23,864 Berkeley email addresses.  Something like the following but
without the hash marks:

AAB##, ANN# ######@socrates.berkeley.edu
    AAH###, ERI#### #######@berkeley.edu
    AAK##, DAV##### #####@haas.berkeley.edu
    AAK##, JOH############# ######@uclink.berkeley.edu
    AAL###, JES############### ####@uclink.berkeley.edu
    AAL##, ROL# not available
    AAR#, JOH### not available
    AAR##, HOL##### ######@socrates.berkeley.edu
    AAR##, MAR####### not available
    AAR#####, SCO####### ########@cs.berkeley.edu
    AAR##, ASH### not available
    ABA#, CHR######## #####@berkeley.edu
    ABA#, JOS##### not available
    ABA#, RON############ #########@berkeley.edu
    ABA#, STE######### ######@uclink.berkeley.edu
    ABA#, MEB######## not available
    ABA###, IMA## #######@library.berkeley.edu
    ABA###, PAT######### ################@#######.com
    ABA####, REA############### ########@uclink.berkeley.edu
    ABA####, TAW######### ########@berkeley.edu
    ABA#####, KAT######### #######@berkeley.edu
    ABA####, JOY######### not available
    ABA####, VIR##### ################@###.com

It continues like this for another 39,479 lines.

I am not going to include the code here out of concern for those
23,868 inboxes, but the basic idea is simple. You call the following
URL for each two-letter combination, substituting each two letter
combination for '%s':

https://directory.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/search.cgi?
    display_type=textonly&search-type=lastfirst&search-base=all
    &search-term=%s&search.x=14&search.y=12&search=Search

Every time you get a list of names with links to more information.
Some queries (e.g., "ad") give you an error: "exceeded the maximum
number of results," but it's pretty trivial to overcome this by doing
queries for certain three letter combinations.  (You need to search
only for those triples "xyz" where both "xy" and "yz" resulted in the
error.  Those are actually very few.)  Thus, it takes a total of about
800 queries to retrieve the full list of people associated with UC
Berkeley (about 40,000 people) and then one query per person to get
all of their details.

Having collected the addresses I sent an email to University Registrar
Ms. Castillo-Robson who assured me that there really is nothing to
worry about.  A year later, the directory still functions just like it
did last year.

On a ligher side, now that I've got 23,864 addresses, I thought I
might as well get some statistics on it.  First, here are the most
popular domain names for the email addresses:

berkeley.edu 8600
    uclink.berkeley.edu 7348
    uclink4.berkeley.edu 1806
    socrates.berkeley.edu 920
    haas.berkeley.edu 586
    yahoo.com 367
    hotmail.com 342
    nature.berkeley.edu 295
    eecs.berkeley.edu 272
    library.berkeley.edu 238
    boalthall.berkeley.edu 187
    lbl.gov 130
    law.berkeley.edu 129
    math.berkeley.edu 125
    cs.berkeley.edu 121
    aol.com 114
    me.berkeley.edu 103
    econ.berkeley.edu 94
    ssl.berkeley.edu 91
    ce.berkeley.edu 80
    dev.urel.berkeley.edu 75
    cchem.berkeley.edu 73
    mba.berkeley.edu 65
    unx.berkeley.edu 59
    cp.berkeley.edu 58
    cal.berkeley.edu 57
    uhs.berkeley.edu 56
    stat.berkeley.edu 56
    calmail.berkeley.edu 51
    newton.berkeley.edu 46
    sims.berkeley.edu 44

Or, put differently:

berkeley.edu          8600
    uclink.berkeley.edu   7361
    {etc}.berkeley.edu    2130
    uclink4.berkeley.edu  1823
    haas.berkeley.edu      587
    yahoo.com              367
    hotmail.com            342
    nature.berkeley.edu    295
    eecs.berkeley.edu      273
    library.berkeley.edu   238
    {etc}.com              232
    boalthall.berkeley.edu 187
    lbl.gov                130
    aol.com                114
    {etc}.net              112
    {etc}.edu               88
    {etc}.org               31
    {something}.{etc}       16
    {etc}.gov               11
    --------------------------
    total                23864

Now the methods of choosing the user names.  The table shows for each
domain pattern what percentage of user names fit into specific
patterns.  (The patterns are illustrated by the hypothetical user names
for "john marvin doe": "doe", "jdoe", etc.)  If the user name matched
only the beginning of the string (e.g. "jlong" instead of
"jlonglastname"), I counted it as a match.

<table border='1'>
<th>
<td valign='top'>jdoe</td>
<td valign='top'>doe</td>
<td valign='top'>doej</td>
<td valign='top'>johnd</td>
<td valign='top'>john</td>
<td valign='top'>john doe</td>
<td valign='top'>jmdoe</td>
<td valign='top'>jmd</td>
<td valign='top'>john .doe</td>
<td valign='top'>nums</td>
<td valign='top'>_</td>
<td valign='top'>misc</td>
</th>
<tr><td>all</td>
 <td>24</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>23</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>22</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>10</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>25</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>uclink.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>24</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>11</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>25</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{etc}.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>25</td>
 <td>21</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>14</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>12</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>uclink4.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>26</td>
 <td>11</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>28</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>socrates.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>27</td>
 <td>22</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>20</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>haas.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>19</td>
 <td>68</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>4</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>yahoo.com</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>26</td>
 <td>19</td>
 <td>29</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>hotmail.com</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>22</td>
 <td>19</td>
 <td>35</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>nature.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>41</td>
 <td>20</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>10</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>12</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>eecs.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>17</td>
 <td>26</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>18</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>16</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>library.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>91</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>6</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{etc}.com</td>
 <td>19</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>13</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>29</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>boalthall.berkeley.edu</td>
 <td>39</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>8</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>5</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>18</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>lbl.gov</td>
 <td>10</td>
 <td>10</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>69</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>aol.com</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>2</td>
 <td>4</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>46</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>43</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{etc}.net</td>
 <td>16</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>15</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>33</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{etc}.edu</td>
 <td>22</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>10</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>7</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>12</td>
 <td>12</td>
 <td>1</td>
 <td>19</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{etc}.org</td>
 <td>32</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>22</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>12</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>3</td>
 <td>9</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{something}.{etc}</td>
 <td>18</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>12</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>6</td>
 <td>12</td>
 <td>31</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>{etc}.gov</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>45</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>18</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>9</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>&nbsp;</td>
 <td>18</td>
</tr>
</table>

A random observations:

* "john@\*.berkeley.edu" is more common than "john@berkeley" - that's
    obvious.  However, also "doe@\*.berkeley.edu" is much more common
    than "doe@berkeley" - is Berkeley large enough that last names
    collisions are common?
* MBAs and .gov people really like their last names.  Lawyers, on the
    other hand, are like the rest of us.
* library.berkeley.edu and lbl.gov must have an explicit policy.
    What's interesting is that lbl.gov must make exceptions for people
    without initials and for people without first names. :)

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