Radical Librarianship: how ninja librarians are ensuring patrons' electronic privacy

Librarians in Massachusetts are working to give their patrons a chance to opt-out of pervasive surveillance. Partnering with the ACLU of Massachusetts, area librarians have been teaching and taking workshops on how freedom of speech and the right to privacy are compromised by the surveillance of online and digital communications -- and what new privacy-protecting services they can offer patrons to shield them from unwanted spying of their library activity.

It's no secret that libraries are among our most democratic institutions. Libraries provide access to information and protect patrons' right to explore new ideas, no matter how controversial or subversive. Libraries are where all should be free to satisfy any information need, be it for tax and legal documents, health information, how-to guides, historical documents, children's books, or poetry.

More from BoingBoing.net

Big Data analysis from the White House: understanding the debate

From BoingBoing:

Danah boyd, founder of the critical Big Data think/do tank Data and Society, writes about the work she did with the White House on Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values [PDF]. Boyd and her team convened a conference called The Social, Cultural & Ethical Dimensions of "Big Data", and fed the conclusions from that event back to the White House for its report.

In boyd's view, the White House team did good work in teasing out the hard questions about public benefit and personal costs of Big Data initiatives, and made solid recommendations for future privacy-oriented protections. Boyd points to this Alistair Croll quote as getting at the heart of one of Big Data's least-understood problems:

Perhaps the biggest threat that a data-driven world presents is an ethical one. Our social safety net is woven on uncertainty. We have welfare, insurance, and other institutions precisely because we can’t tell what’s going to happen — so we amortize that risk across shared resources. The better we are at predicting the future, the less we’ll be willing to share our fates with others.

See also: Meet The Woman Who Did Everything In Her Power To Hide Her Pregnancy From Big Data. It was difficult and expensive.

New List of Privacy Resources and Sites on the Internet

From LLRX.com:

Privacy Resources and Sites on the Internet is a comprehensive listing of privacy resources currently available on the Internet. These include associations, indexes, search engines as well as individual websites and sources that supply the latest technology and information about privacy and how it relates to you and the Internet.

When Crisis Calls: NYPL develops a policy on callers who threaten suicide

By Matthew J. Boylan for American Libraries

A telephone keypad can be a lifesaver.

I recently answered a call on ASK NYPL, the New York Public Library’s telephonic and electronic reference line, from the New York City Police Department. A 16-year-old girl was threatening to throw herself off the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that links Brooklyn to Staten Island, and the only identification that she had in her effects was an NYPL library card — with its barcode on the back that could provide her identity, home address, and contact information for her parents...

White House Pushes for Warrantless Access to Internet Records

Attorney speculates data could include Facebook friend requests

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act currently states that companies are required to provide basic subscriber data to the FBI, but lists only the four kinds of information that might be found on phone bills -- customer's name, address, length of service, and toll billing records

Amazon Faces a Fight Over Its E-Books

Last week, Jeffrey P. Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, offered an apparently heartfelt and anguished mea culpa to customers whose digital editions of George Orwell's 1984 were remotely deleted from their Kindle reading devices.

Though copies of the books were sold by a bookseller that did not have legal rights to the novel, Mr. Bezos wrote on a company forum that Amazon's solution to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles.

An apology was not enough for many people.

A growing number of civil libertarians and customer advocates wants Amazon to fundamentally alter its method for selling Kindle books, lest it be forced to one day change or recall books, perhaps by a judge ruling in a defamation case or by a government deciding a particular work is politically damaging or embarrassing.

Fact Sheet: Department of Justice Actions on FBI Use of National Security Letters

This is from March 2007, but still relevant:

Source: U.S. Department of Justice
“The Attorney General commends the work of the Inspector General (IG) in uncovering serious problems in the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs). The Attorney General has told the Director of the FBI that such mistakes will not be tolerated and has ordered the FBI and the Department to restore accountability and to put in place safeguards to ensure greater oversight and controls over the use of national security letters.”