"The Rise of Reading Analytics and the Emerging Calculus of Reader Privacy in the Digital World"

Clifford Lynch has published "The Rise of Reading Analytics and the Emerging Calculus of Reader Privacy in the Digital World" in First Monday.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper studies emerging technologies for tracking reading behaviors (“reading analytics”) and their implications for reader privacy, attempting to place them in a historical context. It discusses what data is being collected, to whom it is available, and how it might be used by various interested parties (including authors). I explore means of tracking what’s being read, who is doing the reading, and how readers discover what they read. The paper includes two case studies: mass-market e-books (both directly acquired by readers and mediated by libraries) and scholarly journals (usually mediated by academic libraries); in the latter case I also provide examples of the implications of various authentication, authorization and access management practices on reader privacy. While legal issues are touched upon, the focus is generally pragmatic, emphasizing technology and marketplace practices.

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"New FCC Chairman Begins Attacks on Internet Privacy"

The EFF has released "New FCC Chairman Begins Attacks on Internet Privacy."

Here's an excerpt:

Newly minted Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai just granted the telecom industry its wish: he has blocked new requirements that Internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast apply common sense security practices to protect your private data. . . .

Republicans in Congress are planning a much bigger assault on the Internet, by making it illegal for the FCC to protect consumer privacy online. With heavy support from the cable and telephone industry, they are hoping to use a rare and far reaching tool known as a Congressional Review Act resolution, which would not only completely eliminate all of the FCC's broadband privacy rules (not just the data security rule), it would prohibit the FCC from ever enacting any "substantially similar" privacy rules in the future. Because of the current regulatory landscape, the Federal Trade Commission is also barred from policing ISPs, leaving no federal cop on the beat to protect consumer privacy in this space.

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"Four Facets of Privacy and Intellectual Freedom in Licensing Contracts for Electronic Journals"

Alan Rubel and Mei Zhang have published "Four Facets of Privacy and Intellectual Freedom in Licensing Contracts for Electronic Journals" in College & Research Libraries.

Here's an excerpt:

This is a study of the treatment of library patron privacy in licenses for electronic journals in academic libraries. We begin by distinguishing four facets of privacy and intellectual freedom based on the LIS and philosophical literature. Next, we perform a content analysis of 42 license agreements for electronic journals, focusing on terms for enforcing authorized use and collection and sharing of user data. We compare our findings to model licenses, to recommendations proposed in a recent treatise on licenses, and to our account of the four facets of intellectual freedom. We find important conflicts with each.

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"Privacy by Design and the Online Library Environment"

Dan Blum has published "Privacy by Design and the Online Library Environment" in Information Standards Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper focuses on ways that libraries can incorporate advanced identity management concepts within the Privacy By Design framework to meet their needs as they continue their transition from the brick, mortar, and paper era to an era of mixed physical and digital content. In order to add value over and above what researchers can find with search engines and freely available content on the Internet, libraries must excel at supporting both ordinary knowledge seekers and academic researchers in fulfilling their content-and collaboration-related needs. Increasingly, libraries must support a seamless, personalized, and collaborative experience for diverse audiences across the full lifecycle from content discovery to content delivery while at the same time protecting patrons' privacy and intellectual property prerogatives.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

Public Perceptions of Privacy and Security in the Post-Snowden Era

The Pew Research Center has released Public Perceptions of Privacy and Security in the Post-Snowden Era.

Here's an excerpt:

Privacy evokes a constellation of concepts for Americans-some of them tied to traditional notions of civil liberties and some of them driven by concerns about the surveillance of digital communications and the coming era of "big data." While Americans' associations with the topic of privacy are varied, the majority of adults in a new survey by the Pew Research Center feel that their privacy is being challenged along such core dimensions as the security of their personal information and their ability to retain confidentiality.

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Teens and Mobile Apps Privacy

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has released Teens and Mobile Apps Privacy.

Here's an excerpt:

Here are some of the key findings in a new survey of U.S. teens ages 12-17:

  • 58% of all teens have downloaded apps to their cell phone or tablet computer.
  • 51% of teen apps users have avoided certain apps due to privacy concerns.
  • 26% of teen apps users have uninstalled an app because they learned it was collecting personal information that they didn't wish to share.
  • 46% of teen apps users have turned off location tracking features on their cell phone or in an app because they were worried about the privacy of their information.

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Riding the Waves or Caught in the Tide? Insights from the IFLA Trend Report

IFLA has released Riding the Waves or Caught in the Tide? Insights from the IFLA Trend Report.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In the global information environment, time moves quickly and there's an abundance of commentators trying to keep up. With each new technological development, a new report emerges assessing its impact on different sectors of society. The IFLA Trend Report takes a broader approach and identifies five high level trends shaping the information society, spanning access to education, privacy, civic engagement and transformation. Its findings reflect a year's consultation with a range of experts and stakeholders from different disciplines to map broader societal changes occurring, or likely to occur in the information environment.

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"Private But Eventually Public: Why Copyright in Unpublished Works Matters in the Digital Age"

Damien McCallig has published "Private But Eventually Public: Why Copyright in Unpublished Works Matters in the Digital Age" in the latest issue of SCRIPTed.

Here's an excerpt:

Digital life is no longer only concerned with online communication between living individuals; it now encompasses post-death phenomena of inheritance, legacy, mourning and further uses of our digital remains. Scholars and practitioners seeking an appropriate legal theory to claim, control and recover the digital remains of the dead and protect post-mortem privacy interests have identified copyright as a possible surrogate.

This article explores the links between copyright and privacy in unpublished works. It charts the historical development of perpetual copyright protection in unpublished works, reviews the reasons why perpetual protection for unpublished works has been abolished and analyses some of the privacy impacts of these changes. It argues that without perpetual copyright protection and the surrogate privacy protections in unpublished works, the fear that one's digital remains will eventually be opened to societal scrutiny may lead to the fettering of personal and private communication, while alive, and may promote the deletion of one's digital remains in contemplation of death.

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The Right to Be Forgotten—Between Expectations and Practice

The European Network and Information Security Agency has released The Right to Be Forgotten—Between Expectations and Practice.

Here's an excerpt:

The right to be forgotten is included in the proposed regulation on data protection published by the European Commission in January 20121. The regulation is still to be adopted by the European Parliament for entering into force. The different legal aspects of the right to be forgotten (i.e. right to erasure or right to oblivion) have been debated in different contexts and are beyond the scope of this paper. With this paper we aim to cover other facets of the right to be forgotten. We focus on the technical means to enforce or support the right in information systems; as can be seen from this paper, there are technical limitations and there is a further need for clear definitions and legal clarifications.

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"Who’s Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition"

The EFF has released "Who's Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition."

Here's an excerpt:

As we've done since 2009, again we've taken some of the most popular e-book platforms and combed through their privacy policies for answers to common privacy questions that users deserve to know. In many cases, these answers were frustratingly vague and long-winded. In nearly all cases, reading e-books means giving up more privacy than browsing through a physical bookstore or library, or reading a paper book in your own home. Here, we've examined the policies of Google Books, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, Sony, Overdrive, Indiebound, Internet Archive, and Adobe Content Server for answers to the following questions:

  • Can they keep track of searches for books?
  • Can they monitor what you're reading and how you're reading it after purchase and link that information back to you? Can they do that when the e-book is obtained elsewhere?
  • What compatibility does the device have with books not purchased from an associated eBook store?
  • Do they keep a record of book purchases? Can they track book purchases or acquisitions made from other sources?
  • With whom can they share the information collected in non-aggregated form?
  • Do they have mechanisms for customers to access, correct, or delete the information?
  • Can they share information outside the company without the customer's consent?

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"The Web Privacy Census," June 2012

The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology has released "The Web Privacy Census," June 2012.

Here's an excerpt:

In this report, we discuss the results of a crawl conducted on 5/17/12. We found cookies on all popular websites (by "popular websites," we mean the top 100 most popular according to Quantcast). We conduct two different crawls—a shallow one where our test browser just visits the homepage of a site, and a deep crawl where our browser visits six links on a site. Our shallow crawl of the 25,000 most popular sites revealed that 87% have cookies (24% first, 76% third), 9% had HTML5 storage objects, and less than .0001% had flash cookies. Twenty-five percent of cookies include names such as "UID" and "GUID", suggesting that they are used for uniquely identifying users. Overall, we found that flash cookie usage is dropping and HTML5 storage use is rising and at least one tracker is using HTML5 local storage to hold unique identifiers from third party cookies.

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ALA Action Alert: Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act of 2011

The American Library Association has issued an action alert regarding the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act of 2011.

Here's an excerpt:

Please call and ask your U.S. Representative to OPPOSE H.R. 3523, The Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 or CISPA, one of several bills to be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives during "Cybersecurity Week" starting April 23, 2012.

ALA is concerned that essentially all private electronic communications could be obtained by the government and used for many purposes—and not just for cybersecurity activities. H.R. 3523 would permit, even require ISPs and other entities to monitor all electronic communications and share personal information with the government without effective oversight just by claiming the sharing is for "cybersecurity purposes"

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"The Privacy Implications of Digital Preservation: Social Media Archives and the Social Networks Theory of Privacy"

Jasmine E. McNealy has self-archived "The Privacy Implications of Digital Preservation: Social Media Archives and the Social Networks Theory of Privacy" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper seeks to analyze whether SNS [Social Networking Sites] users can claim a right to privacy with respect to their online communications. To do so, this paper will examine the privacy implications of the LOC Twitter archive in light of Strahilevitz's social network theory of privacy. First, this article briefly discusses the LOC Twitter archive. Next, this article explores the online networking phenomenon and the privacy implications associated with social media. Third, this article examines privacy, in particular Strahilevitz's social networks theory of privacy. Part four analyzes whether a challenge to the LOC Twitter archive based on a theory of invasion of privacy by public disclosure of private facts or intrusion would succeed under the social network theory of privacy. This article concludes with considerations for digital archives in relation to protecting personal privacy.

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EFF Issues "Mobile User Privacy Bill of Rights"

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued a "Mobile User Privacy Bill of Rights".

Here's an excerpt:

Mobile smartphone apps represent a powerful technology that will only become more important in the years to come. But the unique advantages of the smartphone as a platform—a device that's always on and connected, with access to real world information like user location or camera and microphone input—also raise privacy challenges. . . .

Fortunately, frameworks exist for understanding the privacy rights and expectations of the users. The following guide of best practices pulls from documents like EFF's Bill of Privacy Rights for Social Network Users and the recently released White House white paper "Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World" to set a baseline for what mobile industry players must do to respect user privacy.

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Data Privacy Legislation: An Analysis of the Current Legislative Landscape and the Implications for Higher Education

EDUCAUSE has released Data Privacy Legislation: An Analysis of the Current Legislative Landscape and the Implications for Higher Education .

Here's an excerpt:

With the ubiquity of mobile devices and the increases in data breaches, Congress has responded with bipartisan support for comprehensive privacy legislation. As of August 2011, 18 bills have been introduced in the 112th Congress concerning data privacy. . . .

These privacy bills generally fall into three distinct areas: comprehensive online privacy protection, geolocation and mobile devices, and data security and breach notification. If enacted, many of the bills have implications for data collection, storage, and use that could affect higher education and campus IT operations and academic research.

| Digital Scholarship |

Association of Research Libraries Sends Letter to FTC about Google Books Privacy Issues

The Association of Research Libraries has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission regarding Google Books privacy issues.

Here's an excerpt:

This consent order presents a unique opportunity to shape best practices in reader privacy for a major online service provider. The marketplaces for e-books and for book search are both in formative stages, and the standards adopted by Google can be highly influential for other market participants. We urge the Commission to confirm that reader privacy deserves the same respect in the online world that it has long demanded in the physical world by insisting on strong protections for reader privacy in the comprehensive privacy program.

Read more about it at "In Comments to FTC, ARL Suggests Privacy Oversight for Google Books."

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Reader Privacy Act of 2011

Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) has introduced the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 in the California State Senate.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Today, California Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) announced the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 – legislation that would require government agencies to seek a warrant or court order in order to access consumers' reading records from bookstores and online retailers.  SB 602 would establish consumer protections for book purchases similar to long-established privacy laws for library records.

"Current law is completely inadequate when it comes to protecting one's privacy for book purchases, especially considering the increasing popularity of online shopping and electronic books," said Yee. "Individuals should be free to buy books without fear of government intrusion and witch hunts. If law enforcement has reason to suspect wrongdoing, they can obtain a warrant for such information."

Many bookstores already collect information about readers and their purchases.  Digital book services can collect even more detailed information including which books are browsed, how long each page is viewed, and even digital notes made in the margins.

Historically, sensitive reader information has come under fire. During the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, Americans were questioned about whether they had read Marx or Lenin. In the years following September 11, 2001, the FBI sought patron information from more than 200 libraries.

Just this past year, Amazon was asked by the North Carolina Department of Revenue to turn over 50 million purchase records including books, videos, and other expressive material. 

SB 602 will update California state law to ensure that government and third parties cannot access Californians' reading records without proper justification. . . .

SB 602 will receive its first hearing in Senate Judiciary Committee in April.

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Privacy Considerations in Cloud-Based Teaching and Learning Environments

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative has released Privacy Considerations in Cloud-Based Teaching and Learning Environments.

Here's an excerpt:

In this white paper, we outline the privacy issues relevant to using cloud-based instructional tools or cloud-based teaching and learning environments for faculty members and those supporting instruction. Our discussion of how teaching and learning in an increasingly technological environment has transformed the way we interact and interpret FERPA will help inform various choices that institutions can consider to best address the law, including policy and best-practice examples. We highlight practical suggestions for how faculty members can continue to use innovative instructional strategies and engage students while considering privacy issues. Finally, this paper discusses ways to further explore and address privacy locally and includes a comprehensive resource list for further reading.

| Digital Scholarship |

"2010: E-Book Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy"

The EFF has released the "2010: E-Book Buyer's Guide to E-Book Privacy."

Here's an excerpt:

The guide is simply a review of privacy policies, to the extent we've been able to find them, plus additional information we received directly from Adobe and the Internet Archive. We haven't been able to do independent testing to verify how these e-book providers work in practice. Also, in discussing whether individuals are linked to their reading we have only addressed direct ways (i.e. Amazon or Google directly keeps that information in your account information) as opposed to indirect ways that require action from third parties like the ability to use your IP address gathered by logs to subpoena your ISP for your name).

| Digital Scholarship |

"7 Things You Should Know about Privacy in Web 2.0 Learning Environments"

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative has released "7 Things You Should Know about Privacy in Web 2.0 Learning Environments"

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

New media, social networking, collaboration sites, image and video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs offer tremendous teaching and learning opportunities to educators and students, but their use raises concerns about privacy, especially as it relates to work that students are asked to complete as part of a course. New learning environments often leverage Web 2.0 or cloud-based tools that offer limited or no privacy protection. When they do, those privacy settings are frequently outside the control of either the institution or the faculty member. Nevertheless, FERPA places the burden of ensuring the privacy of the education record on the institution. Institutions are beginning to explore the connection between FERPA and student work along with their responsibilities in this area. Information and policy provided at the institutional level can help faculty members make choices about which tools to use and how to use them, and students should be educated about the risks of providing identifying personal information on third-party sites that may be public.

Privacy: How Unique Is Your Web Browser?

The EFF has released How Unique Is Your Web Browser?

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

New research by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found that an overwhelming majority of web browsers have unique signatures—creating identifiable "fingerprints" that could be used to track you as you surf the Internet.

The findings were the result of an experiment EFF conducted with volunteers who visited http://panopticlick.eff.org/. The website anonymously logged the configuration and version information from each participant's operating system, browser, and browser plug-ins—information that websites routinely access each time you visit—and compared that information to a database of configurations collected from almost a million other visitors. EFF found that 84% of the configuration combinations were unique and identifiable, creating unique and identifiable browser "fingerprints." Browsers with Adobe Flash or Java plug-ins installed were 94% unique and trackable.

"We took measures to keep participants in our experiment anonymous, but most sites don't do that," said EFF Senior Staff Technologist Peter Eckersley. "In fact, several companies are already selling products that claim to use browser fingerprinting to help websites identify users and their online activities. This experiment is an important reality check, showing just how powerful these tracking mechanisms are."

EFF found that some browsers were less likely to contain unique configurations, including those that block JavaScript, and some browser plug-ins may be able to be configured to limit the information your browser shares with the websites you visit. But overall, it is very difficult to reconfigure your browser to make it less identifiable. The best solution for web users may be to insist that new privacy protections be built into the browsers themselves.

NPR Interview: "Who Should Control The Virtual Library?"

NPR has released a digital audio recording and transcript of an interview with Daphne Keller (Google), Fred Von Lohmann (EFF), and Jessica Vascellaro (Wall Street Journal) about the Google Book Search Settlement.

Here's an excerpt:

[Von Lohmann] Unlike a bookstore or even a library, because these books will live online on Google's computers, where you will be accessing them, Google will have the ability to watch every page you read, how long you spend on any particular page, what page you read a minute ago and what page you're going to read a week from now. It really is as though every book comes with a surveillance camera that comes home with you. So we think it's really critical that this arrangement builds in real strong privacy protections because our nation's bookstores and libraries have fought hard for that, and we think we should accept no less online.

"Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization"

Paul Ohm, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, has self-archived "Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization" at SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Computer scientists have recently undermined our faith in the privacy-protecting power of anonymization, the name for techniques for protecting the privacy of individuals in large databases by deleting information like names and social security numbers. These scientists have demonstrated they can often 'reidentify' or 'deanonymize' individuals hidden in anonymized data with astonishing ease. By understanding this research, we will realize we have made a mistake, labored beneath a fundamental misunderstanding, which has assured us much less privacy than we have assumed. This mistake pervades nearly every information privacy law, regulation, and debate, yet regulators and legal scholars have paid it scant attention. We must respond to the surprising failure of anonymization, and this Article provides the tools to do so.

Read more about it at "What Information Is 'Personally Identifiable'?"