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Privacy at ALA 2010 Annual Conference

On the heels of a successful first-annual Choose Privacy Week, ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and Committee on Legislation will present “Privacy, Libraries, and the Law” — a panel featuring three of today’s foremost privacy experts in the country.

The program will address the current state of privacy law, including the USA PATRIOT Act; how social networking websites (especially Facebook) are changing our understanding of privacy; and new threats to privacy including data mining and data brokers. Panelists will include:

• Leslie Harris, President and CEO of the Center of Democracy and Technology
• Lillie Coney, Associate Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Coordinator of the Privacy Coalition, and EPIC project
• Anne Klinefelter, Director of the Law Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Martin Garnar (moderator), chair of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, and Reference Services Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Science at Regis University in Denver, CO

The panel will take place Monday, June 28 from 10:30 am – Noon, at the Washington Convention Center Room 146B. Please join us!

Recognizing Partners, Looking to the Future

As we near the close of the first-ever Choose Privacy Week, we are tremendously grateful to the many individuals and organizations that have contributed to its success. Please allow us this blog post to recognize those on the front lines of key privacy issues today. We are honored to call many of these folks our partners, allies, colleagues, and friends.

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a first line of defense when digital rights are threatened, and has been since 1990.
• The Center for Democracy and Technology works vigilantly to keep the Internet open, innovative, and free.
• The American Civil Liberties Union promotes uses of technology to enhance privacy and opposes those that undermine our freedoms.
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse empowers consumers with tips to control their own personal information and advocates for consumer privacy rights.
• The Electronic Privacy Information Center consistently focuses public attention on vital privacy issues today.

We have also had opportunities to discuss privacy issues with thinkers like Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Hal Niedzviecki, Geoffrey Stone, and others. It has been a pleasure to work with them and others in the worlds of technology, academia, civil liberties, consumer rights, and libraries to advance our thinking and advocacy on today’s most complex privacy issues. As Choose Privacy Week 2010 draws to a close, we look forward to our future work with these groups and individuals as the struggle for greater privacy rights and awareness continues.

Privacy Programming and Public Libraries

We wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the public libraries that have told us about their fantastic Choose Privacy Week programs and activities! Here are some examples chosen from our Events page, and we hope you’ll share even more events with us soon!

The Pulaski County Public Library (IN) is celebrating Choose Privacy Week by handing out “Privacy Toolkits,” including information on digital privacy, bookmarks, and buttons. Patrons can sign a large poster board proclaiming that they “Choose Privacy” and encourage others to do the same. Everyone who participates will be entered into a drawing for 2 tickets for a local theatre performance.

The Stark County District Library (OH) is hosting, “You Told the World What? Privacy in the Age of Social Networking.” This round table event will focus on social networking and privacy and will take place at two branches during Choose Privacy Week. High school and middle school panelists will discuss questions from moderators and the audience, to help raise awareness of internet safety and the security risks of social networking. SCDL is also working to take this event beyond the walls of the library and into the schools as part of its outreach programming.

The Sherburne Memorial Library (VT) is featuring videos on their website and in the library this week. They hosted a book discussion of Lois Lowry’s “The Giver,” discussions about videos featuring security expert Bruce Schneier. They are also offering a free “I Choose Privacy Kit” for users, full of valuable resources on privacy.

The Virginia Beach Public Library (VA) hosted a deliberative forum on privacy on Monday, May 3. See this blog post for more information on how the forum went!

We were also thrilled to be featured on the Programming Librarian blog, which is a great resource for all things related to presenting cultural programs for all types and sizes of libraries.

Location Sharing Technology and Privacy

Guest blog post by Lorrie Faith Cranor, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Location-based services use a variety of technologies to acquire a user’s location based on the current position of her cell phone, computer, or other device. These technologies typically use triangulation to locate the device based on signals from GPS satellites, cell towers, or WiFi access points – often within a few hundred feet. Cellular providers can obtain location information of mobile phones in this manner even when the phones are not being used to place a call. The Internet address of a user’s computer can also be used to determine an approximate geographic location, typically at a city level.

In April 2009 my students in the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory conducted a survey to understand consumer perceptions of location-sharing services. We asked participants about the degree of harm or benefit they associated with each of 24 scenarios. Participants rated finding people in an emergency as the scenario with the most significant benefit. Other highly beneficial scenarios included being able to track one’s children and relatives, finding information based on one’s location, and checking to see if people are ok. On the risks side, participants had significant privacy concerns. They saw great harm in scenarios involving stalking or revealing one’s home address. They were also concerned about being found by people one wants to avoid or when one wants to be alone, having others intrude on one’s personal space, being tracked by the government, and receiving location-based ads.

We also evaluated 89 location-sharing applications and systems to determine the types of privacy protections each offered. We found that most of these applications provided fairly limited privacy controls and about a third of them did not provide readily accessible privacy policies on their websites. Some location-sharing applications have generic privacy policies that don’t explicitly mention location information. Others mention that they provide privacy controls, but in order to see what controls are provided a consumer has to actually use the service.

Some of the privacy controls that allow users to specify that their location information should be shared only with their friends rather than with the general public turn out to have exceptions. For example, many services have a simple privacy switch that can be set to “on” or “off.” But in one service we examined, text positioned four paragraphs below the switch mentions “two exceptions” in which location information will be shared publicly even when the privacy switch is not set to share this information.

Our research at Carnegie Mellon has explored offering fine-grained and expressive privacy controls. The Locaccino system we developed allows users to specify location-sharing rules based on time, location, and the person making a location request. For example, I have setup a rule that allows students to find my location when I am on campus so that they can determine whether I am in my office or teaching in another building. Another rule allows my family members to locate me at all times and locations. And another rule allows people I work with to locate me between 8 am and 6 pm on weekdays. Locaccino is not being used for advertising, but a similar approach could be used to control when and where location information is used for location-based advertising.

Our research suggests that Internet users are concerned about their location privacy, but that most currently available location-sharing services do not do a good job informing them about how their location information will be used or provide users with expressive location privacy controls and privacy-protective default settings.

See http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/LBSprivacy/ to read more about our work on location sharing and privacy.

Students and Choose Privacy Week

When thinking and talking about privacy issues today, we find that young people are among the most important participants in these conversations. Why? Children and teenagers have unique perspectives to share on the meanings of privacy in their lives. Their attitudes and opinions may surprise some who assume that young people simply don’t care about privacy.

For example, a recent study found that a majority of young people in fact agreed with older adults in their desire for more privacy, not less. Yet, despite growing up as “digital natives,“ young people tend to have many large gaps in knowledge about their rights and responsibilities related to online privacy.

This desire for privacy, combined with a clear need for education around the issues, makes school and other libraries serving young people especially critical components of ALA’s Choose Privacy Week initiative. We were thrilled to have this highlighted in a School Library Journal article and we look forward to learning about all the innovative ways that librarians and teachers are introducing their students to privacy issues and concerns.

For those looking to engage students on privacy, consider the following ideas and resources:

• Lesson Plans: Four sample school library lessons from the Choose Privacy Week Resource Guide are freely available for download. The PDF contains sample lesson plans for grades K-2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12.
• Video and Trailer: School libraries can host viewings of this 20 minute video (or its short trailer) and link or embed it on library websites or social networking sites.
• Word Search: Hand out this free downloadable PDF word search, focusing on “Computers and Privacy.“
• Celebrate CPW Throughout the Year: We know that the first week of May won’t be ideal for all libraries, including school libraries, to celebrate Choose Privacy Week. Find the day, week, or month during the year that works best for you to highlight these vital issues for your students.
• Student PSAs: Students in Rhode Island created these audio public service announcements to celebrate Choose Privacy Week. Consider including them in your morning announcements, as part of a library lesson, or ask your students to create their own!

What other great ideas will you have? We are eager to hear how your community’s libraries are helping students Choose Privacy. Contact us at so we can add your activities to our Events page and share your success with school librarians across the country.

Word search on “Computers and Privacy” now available

With only a few days left until the start of Choose Privacy Week (May 2-8), we want to encourage as many individuals and libraries as possible to participate! A new tool that makes this easy for teachers and librarians is the “Computers and Privacy Word Search” (download PDF here).

Developed by librarian and intellectual freedom advocate Gail Weymouth, the word search provides a simple way for libraries to take part in Choose Privacy Week. Simply print the one-page PDF and make it available at the circulation desk or other access point in the library! Or use it as part of a library program that explores some of the terms included. The word search can help create a “teachable moment” for library users who may be unfamiliar with terms like phishing, encryption, and spyware. Libraries are the perfect places for people to learn more about these important issues!

How are you celebrating Choose Privacy Week in your library or community? Let us know at .

Sample privacy lesson plans now available

Choose Privacy Week begins on May 2, 2010! If your community would like to participate but hasn’t planned anything yet, it’s not too late! ALA is offering numerous resources for you to take part, including sample lesson plans now available for free download.

Four sample school library lessons from the Choose Privacy Week Resource Guide are now freely available for download! Click here to download a PDF containing sample lesson plans for grades K-2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12.

In addition, ALA will release a fantastic video on May 1st, just in time for Choose Privacy Week! We hope that libraries and others will share the video online and host events to discuss the issues it raises. In addition to “man on the street” interviews, the finished video will feature individuals like Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow, and ALA President Camila Alire discussing privacy. Click here to view a short trailer introducing this film.

Finally, please let us know how you will be celebrating Choose Privacy Week in your community! Visit our Events page for ideas on what’s happening elsewhere around the country, and contact us at to share your own ideas and success.

Tell us about your Choose Privacy Week events!

As we draw nearer to the inaugural Choose Privacy Week (CPW; May 2-8), we could use your help! Please let us know what events are happening in your library (or nearby libraries) to celebrate Choose Privacy Week. Please send an email to Angela Maycock with the details of your local event. We’ll be compiling and sharing event information on this site so people in communities across the country can find out where to go to participate in this exciting campaign.

If your community is interested in participating, but hasn’t yet put a program together – it’s not too late!  We’ll be releasing a video prior to CPW that you can show as part of a library event; it will be a “program in a box” for libraries who want to introduce privacy issues, whether in person or online. You might wish to host a community forum on privacy – visit our civic engagement page for free downloadable resources. We also know that many libraries have other innovative ideas for programming and events, and we are eager to learn about what you have planned!

Also, please help us spread the word by forwarding this message to any library- or privacy-related lists or social networking sites that you might be part of!

Thanks for your assistance.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Children and the “Language of Privacy”

A guest blog post from ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) Director, Barbara Jones

Yesterday I had one of those amazing days that, I am happy to report, one is never too old to have! I was the guest of three school librarians in the Evergreen School District in Vancouver, Washington. My goal is to visit as many libraries as possible, in order to see intellectual freedom and privacy protection in action—on the ground—and to be able to speak to library users and staff as well. I want to figure out if the current “language of privacy” is resonating with the children we want to reach.

The Evergreen School District is not wealthy. It is blue collar middle class—many people moving from Portland to Vancouver because the cost of living is cheaper. Around half of the children qualify for school lunch subsidies. But the school libraries are as rich as any in their ambience. Each of the three libraries is total eye candy—plants, posters, photos, computers, and, of course—BOOKS and PEOPLE. As Carol Mackey at the Mountain View High School Library said, “I want every child to see his or her image in this library.“ Each of the librarians is on the floor almost every moment. (My visit was apparently an excuse for them to use their office!) All of them are totally on board with privacy protections for their users. All of them have all their books on the shelves—nothing hidden in the back. They have dealt with challenges (attempts to remove or restrict access to library materials) and have a process in place for doing so. I was struck by how the librarians in that district support each other during challenges—they talk to each other about strategy, and attend public meetings to offer moral support.

One of my favorite moments was in Ms. Mac’s elementary school library. She called over several students to talk to me about what privacy meant to them. Two eleven-year olds said that their older siblings had warned them about not giving out personal information on their Facebook pages. I learned that—when I asked them what they thought about “privacy,“ they drew a blank. But, the minute I asked about Facebook, they understood immediately. Some, unhappily, must be aware of predators living in their neighborhoods and their parents have alerted them. (These kids seemed to me to be mature beyond their age, which made me sad but glad at the same time!) They told me that poster contests or acting out plays would be good ways to teach kids about privacy. Another told me that “The Lovely Bones” had taught him that privacy of one’s body is important. (Yet another reason not to ban books like “The Lovely Bones”!)

I am bringing home with me a poster from “Dustin.“ It is Uncle Sam pointing to us: “I Want YOU to keep your personal information private.“ They get it. It is up to us to help them learn even more and to apply privacy to their daily lives.

Thanks again to my library heroes—Carol, Jone, and Judy—for sharing your day with me. Judy, your point-by-point account of the challenge for “Feed” really helped me understand what a challenge looks like at the grass roots.

National Freedom of Information Day Conference report

March 15, 2010: Guest post from ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) Director, Barbara Jones

The Newseum in Washington, DC is a “must visit.“ Yesterday I enjoyed watching high school students in the First Amendment section, discussing the questions posed to them about the “5 freedoms.“ (More Americans know the names of the Simpsons than the 5 freedoms of the First Amendment!) The complementary right to privacy is carved in stone there: “If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.“ (Former Justice Thurgood Marshall)

Today the Newseum hosted the 12th annual National Freedom of Information Day Conference, which kicks off Sunshine Week, a series of information policy events around the country. The winners of the ALA James Madison Award were Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel of the National Security Archive and Anne Wiseman, Chief Counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. Their legal challenges to retrieve White House email from the Bush era have laid the groundwork for good email documentation policy for administrations to come, including Obama’s.

Privacy is always a complementary balancing factor in discussions of government transparency.  This was evident in remarks by Norman Eisen, Special Council to President Obama for Ethics and Government Reform. When asked about privacy on various agencies’ interactive web systems, he said they “try to err on the side of caution.“ This reminded me of Department of Homeland Security hearings I attended in Spring 2009. Several federal agencies gave demos of their interactive websites, which encourage private citizens to input opinions and reactions. If a frequent flier needs to vent after the flight from hell, there is a place on the TSA web site. But when the afternoon discussions turned to privacy policies, there was not agency-wide consensus on what to do with all that personal data.

Citizen participation is crucial to a democracy. Interactive government websites, however, might not be the best venue.

The keynoter was Congressman William L. Clay, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives. I had an opportunity to ask him about library users’ concerns about privacy and the census. In this case I was much reassured by the response. The census website, and upcoming ad campaigns, will outline the ways in which personally identifiable information is protected—and the severe legal repercussions for any census worker who violates these regulations. It is ironic that people are less concerned about cell phone tracking devices, Facebook accounts, and credit cards, than about the census.

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