Enjoying true privacy is difficult in today’s digital age, but it won’t get easier if people give up on their right to a few personal secrets, Reitman says.
“People are starting to be so frustrated about privacy that they believe they can’t get anything better,” she says. “We have to push back against that idea.“
Privacy
It’s not too late to reclaim our online privacy
How did we get here? Data has become currency: we barter it for services from operating systems to music players, while accepting promises of personalisation and assurances of security from those to whom we entrust it.
That trust is misplaced. Silicon Valley is built on data trading, and its products reflect that. Webmail isn’t encrypted; that would stop lucrative ads. Apps don’t tell us what they’re doing. Ad-trackers stalk you as you browse. And instead of real security, we are exhorted to strengthen our passwords – which is unintuitive and largely futile.
From It’s not too late to reclaim our online privacy | New Scientist
Digital Privacy and Security at ALA Next Week #alaac15
Join Blake Carver from LYRASIS and Alison Macrina from the Library Freedom Project to learn strategies for security from digital surveillance. We’ll teach tools that keep data safe inside the library and out — securing your network, website, and PCs, and tools you can teach to patrons in computer classes. We’ll tackle security myths, passwords, tracking, malware, and more, covering a range of tools from basic to advanced, making this session ideal for any library staff.
Monica at Mozilla: Tracking Protection for Firefox at Web 2.0 Security and Privacy 2015
Advertising does not make content free. It merely externalizes the costs in a way that incentivizes malicious or incompetent players to build things like Superfish, infect 1 in 20 machines with ad injection malware, and create sites that require unsafe plugins and take twice as many resources to load, quite expensive in terms of bandwidth, power, and stability.
From Monica at Mozilla: Tracking Protection for Firefox at Web 2.0 Security and Privacy 2015
What Privacy Rights Do You Have At The Library?
Take a moment to think about the last time you visited the library. Did you visit to check out a book? Or to use the Internet?
It’s becoming more common to the visit for the latter — a 2009 study found that almost half of those living below the poverty line access the web via their local public library.
But, in the age of data collection by both federal agencies and private companies, some librarians say it’s increasingly difficult to maintain patron privacy and intellectual freedom.
From What Privacy Rights Do You Have At The Library? | Radio Boston
Privacy is at a crossroads. Choose wisely.
We already put legal limits on financial, medical, military, transportation, telecommunications and agriculture technology. Why not online tracking? With digital technology making its way into more parts of our lives, and with our data quickly becoming more and more valuable, of course there should be some limits on online tracking!
San Jose: Public library gets $35k for online privacy literacy prototype
“This is a new direction,” said Erin Berman, community programs administrator for technology and innovation for San Jose Public Library. “We’ve done programmatic things before, but we’re trying to broaden the scope and have a real understanding of privacy.”
From San Jose: Public library gets $35k for online privacy literacy prototype – San Jose Mercury News
Uncle Sam and the Illusion of Privacy Online – The Atlantic
All of this is a reminder of one of the core principles of modern communication: that nothing is private on the Internet. But it also raises a question about the real nature of the privacy threat. Law enforcement requests are only part of the picture. The NSA, for instance, has used Facebook in its plans to hack computers on a mass scale, according to The Intercept. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg put it in a blog post last year: “This is why I’ve been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the U.S. government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.”
From Uncle Sam and the Illusion of Privacy Online – The Atlantic
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers a fantastic, touching speech about why online privacy matters
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers a fantastic, touching speech about why online privacy matters
History has shown us that sacrificing our right to privacy can have dire consequences. We still live in a world where all people are not treated equally. Too many people do not feel free to practice their religion or express their opinion, or love who they choose. A world in which that information can make the difference between life and death. If those of us in positions of responsibility fail to do everything in our power to protect the right of privacy, we risk something far more valuable than money, we risk our way of way of life. Fortunately, technology gives us the tools to avoid these risks and it is my sincere hope that by using them and by working together, we will.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-on-online-privacy-2015-2
Library trades users’ privacy for slick search capability
Library trades users’ privacy for slick search capability [PDF Link To Central City Extra]
BiblioCommons’ critics insist, however, that that increased functionality comes at a steep price: Some aspects of
the site open the door to users’ personal data being turned over to a foreign firm to do with as it chooses, they say. The Library Commission encouraged this jaundiced view when it killed one three-letter word from its privacy
policy that had been in place since 2004.
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