Tag: privacy

News & Noteworthy

New Checklists to Support Library Patron Privacy

| Chrishelle Thomas
Checklist graphic

LITA’s Patron Privacy Interest Group has partnered with the ALA IFC’s Privacy Subcommittee to create new checklists to support library patron privacy policies. The checklists cover: data exchange between networked devices and services e-book lending and digital content vendors library management systems/integrated library systems library websites, OPACs, and discovery services public access computers and networks students in K-12 schools. Read the complete announcement at: http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2017/02/lita-offers-patron-privacy-checklists-support-library-bill-rights Find the Checklists at: http://www.ala.org/lita/advocacy Thank you to Sarah Houghton and Mike Robinson for leading this effort.

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Committees and Interest Groups

Why We Need to Encrypt The Whole Web… Library Websites, Too

| Galen Charlton|5 Comments

The Patron Privacy Technologies Interest Group was formed in the fall of 2014 to help library technologists improve how well our tools protect patron privacy.  As the first in a series of posts on technical matters concerning patron privacy, please enjoy this guest post by Alison Macrina. When using the web for activities like banking or shopping, you’ve likely seen a small lock symbol appear at the beginning of the URL and noticed the “HTTP” in the site’s address switch to “HTTPS”. You might even know that the “s” in HTTPS stands for “secure”, and that all of this means that the website you’ve accessed is using the TLS/SSL protocol. But what you might not know is that TLS/SSL is one of the most important yet most underutilized internet protocols, and that all websites, not just those transmitting “sensitive” information, should be using HTTPS by default. To understand why TLS/SSL…

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General information

Out of Control

| Leanne Mobley|2 Comments

Last week I found myself in a grey area. I set up a one-on-one tech appointment with a patron to go over the basics of her new Android tablet. Once we met in person I learned that what she really wanted was to monitor her daughter’s every move online. It felt like a typical help session as I showed her how to check the browsing history and set up parental controls. She had all the necessary passwords for her daughter’s email and Facebook accounts, which made it even easier. It wasn’t until she left that I realized I had committed a library crime: I completely ignored the issue of privacy. I’m still mulling this over in my head, trying to decide how I should have acted. I’m not a parent, so I can’t speak to the desire to protect children from the dangers of the Internet. Chances are her daughter can…

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