Category: Privacy

Research Library Issues, no. 297 (2019): The Current Privacy Landscape

ARL has released Research Library Issues, no. 297 (2019): The Current Privacy Landscape.

Here's an excerpt from the "Introduction" by Mary Lee Kennedy:

In this first issue of Research Library Issues (RLI) in 2019, the authors explore privacy from a legal, digital, and applied perspective, with a focus on the implications and opportunities for research libraries. The current privacy landscape highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of the complicated nature of privacy today. Research libraries need to collaborate with other privacy-related constituents within institutions and in the public policy and legislative arenas, and act as trusted institutions within a democratic society.

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"Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review"

Kristin A. Briney has published "Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review" in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.

Here's an excerpt:

INTRODUCTION Data handling in library learning analytics plays a pivotal role in protecting patron privacy, yet the landscape of data management by librarians is poorly understood. METHODS This critical review examines data-handling practices from 54 learning analytics studies in academic libraries and compares them against the NISO Consensus Principles on User’s Digital Privacy in Library, Publisher, and Software-Provider Systems and data management best practices. RESULTS A number of the published research projects demonstrate inadequate data protection practices including incomplete anonymization, prolonged data retention, collection of a broad scope of sensitive information, lack of informed consent, and sharing of patron-identified information. DISCUSSION As with researchers more generally, libraries should improve their data management practices. No studies aligned with the NISO Principles in all evaluated areas, but several studies provide specific exemplars of good practice. CONCLUSION Libraries can better protect patron privacy by improving data management practices in learning analytics research.

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"Facebook’s Latest Scandal Shows We Need Stronger Privacy Laws"

The EFF has released "Facebook's Latest Scandal Shows We Need Stronger Privacy Laws" by Hayley Tsukayama and Adam Schwartz.

Here's an excerpt:

Facebook, the world's largest social media company, has shown yet again that it does not deserve our trust. A New York Times investigation revealed that Facebook shared its users' private data, without its users' consent, with other tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, and Netflix.

The Times report revealed that Facebook parceled out deeply personal information from its users to other companies without first asking if that was alright. Facebook users' private messages went to Netflix, Spotify and the Royal Bank of Canada. The names and contact information for their friends went to Sony, Microsoft, and Amazon. Yahoo even got a real-time feed of what users' friends were up to—without telling either the user or their friends. . . .

Tech industry groups such as the Internet Association, which counts Facebook as a member, have asked California legislators to weaken even these basic privacy protections. Big tech companies are also now calling for a national privacy law, after years of claiming self-regulation would be enough to keep them in line—a claim that's obviously not true— but only if a national law “preempts” and rolls back vital state protections.

We are particularly troubled by the Times' new report that Facebook is undermining user privacy by misinterpreting the term “service provider,” which is an exception to the privacy rules in the FTC's 2011 consent order with Facebook.

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"Open Data, Grey Data, and Stewardship: Universities at the Privacy Frontier"

Christine L. Borgman has self-archived "Open Data, Grey Data, and Stewardship: Universities at the Privacy Frontier."

Here's an excerpt:

As universities recognize the inherent value in the data they collect and hold, they encounter unforeseen challenges in stewarding those data in ways that balance accountability, transparency, and protection of privacy, academic freedom, and intellectual property. Two parallel developments in academic data collection are converging: (1) open access requirements, whereby researchers must provide access to their data as a condition of obtaining grant funding or publishing results in journals; and (2) the vast accumulation of 'grey data' about individuals in their daily activities of research, teaching, learning, services, and administration. The boundaries between research and grey data are blurring, making it more difficult to assess the risks and responsibilities associated with any data collection. Many sets of data, both research and grey, fall outside privacy regulations such as HIPAA, FERPA, and PII. Universities are exploiting these data for research, learning analytics, faculty evaluation, strategic decisions, and other sensitive matters. Commercial entities are besieging universities with requests for access to data or for partnerships to mine them. The privacy frontier facing research universities spans open access practices, uses and misuses of data, public records requests, cyber risk, and curating data for privacy protection. This paper explores the competing values inherent in data stewardship and makes recommendations for practice, drawing on the pioneering work of the University of California in privacy and information security, data governance, and cyber risk.

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