Giving users their privacy rights back.
Cliff August 14th, 2007
As librarians, we have taken our users’ privacy rights away. As part of our code of ethics,
III. We protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.
In many cases, we are protecting the user’s right to privacy whether they like it or not. By shredding/deleting/anonymizing user information without the user’s consent, we are taking that right away. If a library user is unable to exercise their right to privacy themselves, do they have that right at all?
At the GGAUG Conference, several librarians expressed concern that the Web is evolving to slowly chip away at privacy, and that “Big Brother” is collecting information on us all. In response, I asked how many people in the room had Amazon.com accounts. Of about 100 people, only two did not have accounts. As a matter of perspective, I pointed out how Amazon.com has my current and former addresses and phone numbers, credit card information, and how it knows what books I read, CDs I listen to, woodworking tools I wish I could afford, and how I’m related to various friends and family members with similar wishlists. How did this corporate monolith gain all this information about me? I gave it away for the convenience of one-stop-shopping online. Many of our patrons are also willing to sacrifice a little privacy for the sake of convenience.
Booklovers are constantly discovering LibraryThing, and are sharing their reading lists with each other. WorldCat.org is developing social networking so that users can create lists of books and articles to share with friends. We are struggling to hold onto privacy that some of our users are actively trying to give away. So why not give the users their privacy rights back, and let them decide for themselves what to do with their information?
My recommendation to librarians as a whole is to give users privacy options–let them choose what information we keep or destroy. Let them pick who they will share their information with. In the post-USA PATRIOT Act world, we have become so scared as to destroy our patrons’ records “for their own good.” Wow. That sounds surprisingly familiar, no?
As a student, I would have loved to have gone into the library’s catalog to write reviews and share booklists with fellow group members from class. In my family, I would love to share booklists with my family’s book club. As a teacher, I would love to share what I’ve checked out of the library with my colleagues. But I don’t have the option to do that. I can’t choose. And therefore I don’t have the right.