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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Library and Information Science

City University of New York (CUNY)

Privacy

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Librarians As Feisty Advocates For Privacy, Sarah Lamdan Sep 2015

Librarians As Feisty Advocates For Privacy, Sarah Lamdan

Urban Library Journal

Librarians are the ideal professional group to advocate for privacy and intellectual freedom during online social media product use. Under the central leadership of the American Library Association (ALA), librarians should lead a campaign to urge Internet social media companies to include Privacy by Design principles in their user agreements. This social media privacy campaign would follow librarians’ historical privacy advocacy efforts, and promoting ethical user agreements presents a new venue for librarians’ advocacy in the era of online information access.


The Nine Circles Of Surveillance Hell: An Institutional View Of Information Flows And Information Threats In Libraries, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Bonnie Tijerina May 2015

The Nine Circles Of Surveillance Hell: An Institutional View Of Information Flows And Information Threats In Libraries, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Bonnie Tijerina

LACUNY Institute 2015

In the past few years, libraries have started to design public programs that educate patrons about different tools and techniques to protect personal privacy. But do end user solutions provide adequate safeguards against surveillance by corporate and government actors? What does a comprehensive plan for privacy entail in order that libraries live up to their privacy values? In this paper, the authors discuss the complexity of surveillance architecture that the library institution might confront when seeking to defend the privacy rights of patrons. This architecture consists of three main parts: physical or material aspects, logical characteristics, and social factors of …


Protecting Your Search Privacy: A Lesson Plan, Maria Bernhey May 2015

Protecting Your Search Privacy: A Lesson Plan, Maria Bernhey

LACUNY Institute 2015

Each year search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, complete trillions of search queries online. Students are especially dependent on these search tools because of their popularity, convenience and accessibility. However, what students are unaware of, by choice or naiveté is the amount of personal information that is collected during each search session, how that data is used and who is interested in their online behavior profile. Privacy policies are frequently updated in favor of the search companies but are lengthy and often are perused briefly or ignored entirely with little thought about how personal web habits are being exploited …


Who Does The Internet Think You Are? Three Tools That Teach Students How They Are Actively Profiled Online, All The Time, Robin Camille Davis May 2015

Who Does The Internet Think You Are? Three Tools That Teach Students How They Are Actively Profiled Online, All The Time, Robin Camille Davis

LACUNY Institute 2015

Your Internet experience is yours alone. For better but often for worse, websites, ads, search results, and even product prices are tailored to you specifically — but how? A vast collection of data describes you to a number of unseen organizations who use this information to shape the internet you see. This transmission of data is not readily visible, but we have the tools to bring this activity into the foreground. We will answer these questions: How does Google profile you to advertisers? How many trackers are following you around the internet? What information are these trackers transmitting, and for …


Privacy Advocacy In Libraries In The Age Of Mass Surveillance, Alison Macrina May 2015

Privacy Advocacy In Libraries In The Age Of Mass Surveillance, Alison Macrina

LACUNY Institute 2015

Alison Macrina is the founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, an initiative that aims to make real the promise of intellectual freedom in libraries. The Library Freedom Project trains librarians on the state of global surveillance, privacy rights, and privacy-protecting technology, so that librarians may in turn teach their communities about safeguarding privacy. In 2015, Alison was named one of Library Journal‘s Movers and Shakers. Read more about the Library Freedom Project at libraryfreedomproject.org.


Librarians As Advocates For Social Media Privacy, Sarah Lamdan May 2015

Librarians As Advocates For Social Media Privacy, Sarah Lamdan

LACUNY Institute 2015

Librarians must continue their traditional roles as privacy rights activists and intellectual freedom upholders into the digital age, and across electronic information sources, including social media fora. Social media is quickly becoming a major source of information and center for information seeking, and librarians have an opportunity to promote and help shape social media policies that protect users’ privacy and assure that users can seek information without inhibition. One way librarians can be involved in the promotion of online privacy is by joining the social media user rights movement and advocating terms of use agreements that protect information seekers that …


Library Patron Privacy In 2014 - Honoring The Legacy Of Zoia Horn, Sarah Lamdan Jan 2014

Library Patron Privacy In 2014 - Honoring The Legacy Of Zoia Horn, Sarah Lamdan

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.


Critical Information Literacy And The Technology Of Control: The Case Of Armenia, John Carey, D. Aram Donabedian Jan 2013

Critical Information Literacy And The Technology Of Control: The Case Of Armenia, John Carey, D. Aram Donabedian

Publications and Research

As direct providers of information literacy, librarians can help patrons analyze the social and economic forces involved in the creation and use of information. This chapter will discuss why critical information literacy and critical pedagogy are especially important in the Armenian context, with its unique historical, cultural, and geopolitical concerns. The authors will document how the Armenian government has used cutting-edge Internet controls to block online content or misdirect users. We will also examine how Armenians perceive the independence of their available media and explore current efforts by telecom, publishing, and governmental concerns to restrict Internet freedom. The authors suggest …


"The Homosexual" As Problem Patron, Polly Thistlethwaite Jan 2002

"The Homosexual" As Problem Patron, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

Libraries host a range of human activity, some of which is overtly sexual. What's a librarian to do about public displays of affection? cruising? public sex? First, we read up on the issue. Unfortunately, problem patron library literature is spotted with vivid illustrations of irrational bias against gay men, male-to-female transgender women, and men-cruising-men. It also discounts the private nature of most consensual sex in public places. This article discusses sex and gender biases in library literature, arguing that gender equitable, privacy-respecting practices will better serve librarians administering public space.


The Confidentiality Of Library Users’ Records, John A. Drobnicki Jan 1992

The Confidentiality Of Library Users’ Records, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Many activities that take place in the library, including circulation and inter!ibrary loan and reserve requests, result in the creation of records linking clients to specific kinds of information. Several groups, including law enforcement officials, have attempted on various occasions to gain access to these records. This research paper provides a broad overview of the legal and ethical issues regarding the confidentiality of library user's records, including federal, state, and court protection for the confidentiality of library records, the status of library records that are part of a public institution, and a minor's right to privacy. The paper also discusses …