Library patron privacy in jeopardy an analysis of the privacy policies of digital content vendors

Abstract

While the library profession has long defended readers' privacy, a public library patron's personal information is no longer solely in the hands of intrepid librarians determined to defend intellectual freedom. Libraries use vendors to provide a large portion of their digital content. These vendors gain access to extensive personal information about patrons. Libraries often must negotiate with content providers to ensure privacy protections for their patrons that are in accordance with the American Library Association's Code of Ethics. This paper presents the results of a content analysis of the privacy policies of five of the top digital content vendors of American public libraries. We examined whether these privacy policies (1) meet the privacy standards of the library community, (2) meet other industry standards, and (3) are accessible and understandable to public library patrons. Our results demonstrate that while vendors are largely meeting the Fair Information Practices standards of American industry, the policies fail to meet the heightened standards of the library community.

Learning Analytics and the Academic Library: Professional Ethics Commitments at a Crossroads

“…Lambert, Parker, and Bashir's research into popular digital content vendors found that vendors often collect, analyze, and share personally identifiable information with third parties, even though public policies stated otherwise. 102 And Rubel and Zhang's investigation into 42 unique licensing agreements uncovered the wide spectrum of data collection and sharing protections in existence (or in some cases lacking altogether). 103 This suggests that libraries are participating in a "Faustian bargain" whereby vendors and vendor systems provide access to valuable resources at the cost of degrading student privacy and weakening librarians' professional ethics commitments.…”

Privacy Issues in Libraries with Online Services: Attitudes and Concerns of Academic Librarians and University Students in Ghana

“…30 Meanwhile, vendors are more likely to conform to information technology industry standards than those specific to libraries. 31 The study investigated privacy attitudes and concerns within the Ghanaian academic library space and what the differences and similarities are for librarians and their student patrons.…”

I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me: Student Perceptions of Library Data Privacy

“…Because of the expansive scale of these topics, reviewing all research would be unrealistic within the scope of this paper. However, it is important to note that numerous others have written about issues of student privacy within academic institutions, whether on observational data surveillance (Harwell, 2019), location surveillance (Gardner, 2019), institutional of learning analytics providers (Reidenberg & Schaub, 2018), library participation in learning analytic systems (Jones et al, 2019) or directly within the library (Lambert et al, 2015).…”