In my prior two posts, I outlined a strategy to minimize personally identifiable information in library automation systems (idea overview, impact on FOLIO). This approach uses a unique single-service identifier (the "pairwise-id") recognized exclusively by the identity provider (IdP) and the library's service provider (SP), effectively preventing any cross-system correlation …

In the previous blog post, I outlined the concept of a library system with no personally identifiable information as a way to safeguard a patron's right to privacy. Library systems commonly retain traces of a patron's library activity, and the librarian ethos protects a patron's privacy as they conduct their …

Library systems hold significant information about patrons, including their search and reading histories. For librarians, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of this data is an essential component of professional ethics. In the United States, for example, the third point in the American Library Association Code of Ethics is "We protect …

Back again. Thanks for the comments on the return of the newsletter. I've heard that Microsoft Outlook isn't playing nice with my email theme. (It also isn't playing fair...someone forwarded the newsletter back to me, and when I replied that person said the view of the newsletter in the …

I've deleted what I originally had here as newsletter-opening-banter. These are serious times. I think the world has radically changed overnight, and roughly 7.9 billion of us are not in positions to do anything about it. To those that are in positions to do something about it and to …

The middle of February already. Time is flying; I hope you are having fun.

The threads this week:

• Privacy-busting Fingerprints in Journal Articles
• Fraud in NFTs
• Improve Your Life

Feel free to send this newsletter to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you are not already …

Last month, EDUCAUSE published its Top 10 IT Issues for 2022 with the subtitle "The Higher Education We Deserve". To reach the top 10, EDUCAUSE members were asked to prioritize 17 issues identified by the EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel members. The members of the Issue Panel then broke up into …

Code4Lib Journal (C4LJ) editor here. Becky Yoose's Twitter thread has stirred up a great deal of attention to an article published yesterday. This post has my own thoughts on the issue...published on Twitter to match Becky's medium and here on my blog for posterity.

So yeah that Code4Lib Journal …

These are the presentation notes for the Privacy in the Context of Content Platforms and Discovery Tools presentation during the NISO Information Freedom, Ethics, and Integrity virtual conference on Wednesday, April 18, 2018.

• ALA Code of Ethics
• Privacy: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights

• Panopticlick - Electronic Frontier Foundation …

[caption id="attachment_KkOCeAtKHIc" align="alignright" width="210" caption="Me and my Jester's Cap"]

Closing out #nisoforum w Peter Murray as disruptive tech jester! pic.twitter.com/TvRb8UEY0T

— Lettie Conrad (@lyconrad) October 6, 2015

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Last week I was at the NISO Forum: The Future of Library Resource Discovery with a …

Two articles in each of two threads this week:

• If Strong Encryption is Outlawed...
• Allocations of IPv4 Internet Addresses Now Restricted; It's a Good Thing IPv6 is Finally Here

Feel free to send this newsletter to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you are not already …

This week's threads:

• Let's Encrypt announces its launch schedule, so soon everyone can have web servers with encrypted transmissions;
• Ploys by businesses to get you to come into the office, if you work at a place where coming into an office is optional; and
• A summary of Open Repositories 2015 …

In just a few weeks there will be a gathering of 25,000 librarians in the streets of San Francisco for the American Library Association annual meeting. The topics on my mind as the meeting draws closer? How patrons intersect with advertising and privacy when using our services. What one …

One of the things discussed in the NISO patron privacy conference calls has been the need for transparency with patrons about what information is being gathered about them and what is done with it. The recent announcement by Google of a "My Account" page and a privacy question/answer site …

Yesterday Bobbi Newman posted Thinking Out Loud About Patron Privacy and Libraries on her blog. Both of us are on the NISO committee to develop a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems, and her article sounded a note of discouragement that I hope to …

In this week's threads: a protest -- or maybe just an art project -- by a reader who saves his e-book copy of Orwell's 1984 by photocopying each page from his Kindle, the "AutoAwesome" nature of artificial intelligence, and a call to action for libraries to implement encryption on their websites.

Feel …

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a short talk at the second virtual meeting of the NISO effort to reach a Consensus Framework to Support Patron Privacy in Digital Library and Information Systems. The slides from the presentation are below and on SlideShare, followed by a cleaned-up transcript …

Welcome spring in the northern hemisphere! Thoughts turn to fresh new growth -- a new tool to help with writing documents for procuring library systems, a fresh way to think about how libraries can transform and be transformed, and spring cleaning for your browsing habits with a do-it-yourself VPN.

Feel free …

Are you paranoid yet? Are you worried that the secret you shared anonymously might come right back to you? Or wondering why advertisements seem to follow you around from web page to web page? Or just creeped out by internet-enabled services tracking your every move? Or angry that mobile carriers …

In the DLTJ Thursday Threads this week: an analysis of how external services included on library web pages can impact patron privacy, pointers to a series of helpful posts from OCLC on communication between software users and software developers, and lastly an update on the continuing discussion of the Kuali …