By Matt Collette

As quickly as it arrived, it was taken away.

Last weekend, students were given access to a new Facebook application, one that would give them access to their Blackboard accounts and update them on developments. The site spread rapidly as Coursefeed sent e-mails to everyone in the classes of students who added the applications.

Because students who added Coursefeed had to disclose their Blackboard usernames and passwords, Northeastern’s Information Services (IS) acted quickly, asking the company behind the application to block access to Northeastern students and delete their records of student information.

Bob Weir, vice president for information services, said Northeastern contacted ClassTop and asked them to shut down application access for Northeastern students and delete login information for Blackboard, which is the same login as for the myNEU portal.

“[Coursfeed is] a Facebook application that lets students get updates and alerts on what’s going on on the Blackboard accounts via Facebook,” said Jared Allgood, Classtop CEO.

Glenn Hill, director of information security and identity services, said his office had received complaints from staff and students about spam.

“Literally hundreds of our students signed up overnight,” Weir said.

Weir said ClassTop was very cooperative with Northeastern when he called to address his concerns.

“I simply contacted them and shared that while I appreciate the service, the method of getting the myNEU password was a problem,” Weir said.

Allgood said that his site immediately responded to Northeastern’s requests.

“It was shut down immediately and usernames and passwords were deleted from our system,” Allgoo said.

Weir said that while Northeastern administrators recognized the value of the application, which includes features like a Facebook wall for each class, the potential security issues far outweighed the site’s benefits.

Coursefeed allows students to use Blackboard in a way that they currently cannot. One major feature of the application is that is updates students when their course pages are updated, a task that students would have to do manually on Blackboard. ClassTop describes Coursefeed as Real Simple Syndication for a site that doesn’t allow for that technology.

“The fact is they can be an imposter for any of the functionality on myNEU,” Weir said. Login information to myNEU could have allowed access to any of a student’s health, academic or financial information, and could have allowed someone to send an e-mail from a student’s account.

Weir said that while Northeastern has no evidence that ClassTop used student login information inappropriately, there was also no way to know that they did not.

The Coursefeed website says that their methods to protect user data meet industry standards and are widely used.

Allgood said that ClassTop is trying to find a way for students to access Coursefeed without having to give the company their Blackboard login information.

Northeastern was not the only school to contact Coursefeed about students giving out their contact information. He said that the company is working to develop a way for the application to work without students having to give out their login information.

“We’re working with Northeastern to allow students another way to use Coursefeed in a way that doesn’t require them to enter their Blackboard info,” Allgood said.

Currently, if a Northeastern student tries to access the Coursefeed application, they receive a message explaining why the site does not allow Northeastern students access saying, “Northeastern does not currently permit students to enter passwords into 3rd party products. We are working on solutions to resolve this. In the meantime, access for students will be denied. We appreciate your support and enthusiasm for our service and hope to provide it again soon.”

Weir said students must be careful about giving out their myNEU username and password to any third party.

“Giving someone your user ID and password is like leaving the keys in your car,” Weir said.

Because Coursefeed was only online for a few days, Northeastern students did not have much of a chance to use the product, students said. Victoria Quamme, a middler communication studies student said she added the application, but did not get a chance to use it before it was deactivated.

“Its kind of irrelevant to me,” said Quamme, who also said she added the application after getting an e-mail about it.