Following up - again - on recent posts on libraries and privacy here and at Chronicles of Dissent, CoD has received a response from the makers of the CASSIE Internet access management system. Excerpts from their e-mail exchange: 1. Can…
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MSFT Wants To Identify All Web Surfers Based on Surfing Habits
Not wanting to be outdone by Google's recent news about profiling users based on their psychological profiles, reports have emerged that Microsoft is developing new technologies to identify users based on their browsing habits: IF YOU thought you could protect…
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Libraries and Privacy: Following up with the ALA
Following up on recent posts on libraries and privacy here and at Chronicles of Dissent, CoD contacted Deborah Caldwell-Stone, a Deputy Director at the American Library Association, for reactions of some of the issues we've been discussing. Regarding concerns about…
US high-speed Internet is…slow
Is this the inevitable consequence of privatizing access to the NSFNet backbone? From Press Esc: The average broadband download speed in the US is only 1.9 megabits per second, compared to 61 Mbps in Japan, 45 Mbps in South Korea,…
On the Importance of Libraries
One of the more pleasant unintended consequences of my dissertation research was unearthing how the values of privacy, autonomy, and freedom of inquiry are central to the institution of the public library. I argue that libraries serve as spheres of…
Why Privacy Matters
Rory Litwin at the excellent Library Juice blog suggests three things we can do to remind ourselves why privacy matters: Recall specific occasions in your life when you realized you needed to make some information about yourself more private, or…
NYT Discovers Data-Mining
For some odd reason, the New York Times has an article declaring that data-mining has now gone mainstream: ...a wave of sophisticated computing and mathematical analytics that is moving into the mainstream. Fueling the trend are the digitization of information,…
Weakening of Online Privacy at Libraries
Chronicles of Dissent points to some discouraging trends at public libraries that potentially threaten patron anonymity and privacy. First, it appears more and more libraries are requiring those wishing to use their Internet services to produce a valid library card.…
Google Korea to Log National IDs for some searches
This has the potential to set a disturbing precedent. InfoWorld reports that Google Korea plans to introduce an age-verification system later this year that will restrict adult-themed searches to those 19 years of age and older. Working from a 700-word…
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Libraries vs. Bookstores vs. Google
Library Juice posts a wonderful essay by Tracy Nectoux, a library student at UIUC, who was assigned to visit a bookstore and compare the atmosphere to a library’s atmosphere. I think it's helpful to take the comparison one step further…
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