Showing posts with label digital security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital security. Show all posts

Thursday, February 24, 2022

ALA, IMLS Sponsored Privacy Field Guides Launched; Library Journal, February 17, 2022

Matt Enis , Library Journal ; ALA, IMLS Sponsored Privacy Field Guides Launched

"The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), in partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), recently sponsored the development and publication of a series of seven Privacy Field Guides. Designed to offer practical information and hands-on exercises for public, academic, and K–12 librarians, the seven guides cover digital security basics, how to talk about privacy with patrons, non-tech privacy, data lifecycles, privacy audits, privacy policies, and vendors and privacy.

Patron privacy—as well as consumer privacy more broadly—has been a longstanding concern within the library field, and many library-specific books, articles, workshops, and other resources are available on the topic. However, as project co-leads Bonnie Tijerina, founder of the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference and fellow at the Data & Society Institute, NY; and Erin Berman, division director, Learning Group, Alameda County Library, CA, and current chair of ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) Privacy Subcommittee, wrote in their grant proposal: “While a plethora of information exists about how to institute privacy policies and procedures in libraries, it is difficult to navigate and hard to use.” Much of the content “is too dense and academic to be useful to frontline staff. The Privacy Advocacy Guides seek to eliminate the barriers libraries face when trying to create a privacy conscious organization.”

“We have information overload,” said Becky Yoose, founder and library data privacy consultant at LDH Consulting Services, WA, and one of the authors of the guides. “You have people who want to do something with privacy at their library, they just don’t know where to start. They don’t know which topics to start with, how to start, and more importantly, how to communicate things about privacy to coworkers, administrators, the public, partners, [or] vendors. These field guides are primarily…practical introductions into key privacy topics for all library types.”

Another author, Emily Ray, electronic resources librarian for the University of North Florida, added that many articles on privacy point out problems and troubling developments without offering practical solutions, while others that offer solutions are often targeted at an audience with technical expertise."

Monday, July 3, 2017

Security Pros, Librarians Holding Digital Privacy Clinics Across U.S.; Consumer Reports, June 28, 2017

Andrew Chaikivsky, Consumer Reports; Security Pros, Librarians Holding Digital Privacy Clinics Across U.S.

"Librarians as Privacy Coaches
Workshops such as Mitchell’s are often called “crypto parties” in reference to cryptography, a field of math and computer science that underlies digital security.

The idea was launched in 2012 as a grassroots movement, and since then hundreds of crypto parties have been held worldwide, including events in at least 26 states. The clinics teach everything from how to lock down a smartphone to methods for limiting online tracking by marketers. Attendees are urged to bring their laptops and phones. “No chips, dip, awesome music, or drinks,” Mitchell says. “Just food for the mind.”

These workshops are free, and you can find a list of upcoming events online. People who can't find a crypto party in their community may be able to learn about digital security at their public library.

“Libraries do a lot of digital training, and part of learning how to use a computer is making decisions about your online privacy,” says Mike Robinson, chairman of the Intellectual Freedom Committee’s privacy group at the American Library Association. “We don’t tend to call them crypto parties,” he says, “but in essence it’s what they are.”
If your library doesn’t yet offer this sort of training, Alison Macrina, a former technology librarian in Watertown, Mass., who co-wrote a self-published guide to online privacy called “We Are All Suspects,” suggests that you ask at the reference desk. “Libraries are incredibly quantitative and data-driven. If people call or ask, librarians can better show the board of directors or administrators that there’s a big interest in it and a need for this.”"

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

At Berkeley, a New Digital Privacy Protest; New York Times, 2/1/16

Steve Lohr, New York Times; At Berkeley, a New Digital Privacy Protest:
"While some of the professors criticize the monitoring program as one that invades their privacy, the University of California has responded that “privacy perishes in the absence of security.”
It’s part of the larger challenge that fast-moving technology poses for social values. Every day, corporations, government agencies and universities must balance the need for computer security with the expected right to privacy of the people who use their networks. In different settings, there are different rules, expectations and levels of threat.
“We’re really just starting to sort out the risks and rules for digital security and data collection and use,” said Elana Zeide, a privacy expert at New York University’s Information Law Institute."