Featured: Privacy @ ALA Annual 2017 | Choose Privacy Week The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of American Immigrants |  Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology A live workshop on June 22, 2017 with available livestream Libraries and Privacy Privacy vs. Security:Council debates merits of library video surveillance system | Planet Princeton (NJ) Woman says librarians know who hit her car but can’t tell her | WSB-TV...

As editor of the ALA’s new Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy, I’m excited to preview the journal’s first special-themed issue on Privacy (Volume 2, Issue 1). Within libraries, a patron’s intellectual activities are protected by decades of established norms and practices intended to preserve patron privacy and confidentiality, most stemming from the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and related interpretations. As a matter...

By Adam Chandler Cornell University Libraries Director, Automation, User Experience, and Post-Cataloging Services Like many other libraries, Cornell University Library uses Google Analytics (GA) to track website usage. GA, designed to support Google’s primary revenue stream, advertising, has many strengths, especially the fact that it does not cost money. However, given our tradition in libraries to protect reader privacy, a compelling...

By Matt Beckstrom Systems Manager Librarian, Lewis & Clark Library, Helena, MT Author, Protecting Patron Privacy:Safe Practices for Public Computers Most of us offer some kind of public computers for our patrons, and obviously privacy is a concern. What should we be doing for our patrons when it comes to privacy on public computers? What steps can we take? First of all, we have to remember that we have to work around the fact that privacy is...

by Sarah Houghton Director, San Rafael Public Library (California) In this brave new world do you find yourself wondering how to ensure that your library is protecting your users’ privacy to the best of your ability? Not sure where to start? Check out the Library Patron Privacy Checklists, a joint effort from LITA’s Patron Privacy Interest Group and the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee’s Privacy Subcommittee. No matter what kind...

By Galen Charlton One trope of data security discussions envisions a perfectly secure database as one that exists on a computer that is turned off, encased in concrete underground, and under the supervision of a very cranky cat who refuses all visitors. The flaw in this vision is clear: a database that can never be queried is of little use. Assuming that the database should exist in the first place — and that’s an assumption that bears...