Privacy and Ethics in Technology

Background

The Privacy and Ethics in Technology Working Group (formerly know as the Technologies of Surveillance Working Group) was formed at the end of the 2017 DLF Forum by Yasmeen Shorish and Shea Swauger. This group came out of the Surveyance or Surveillance? Working Lunch at the Forum and is dedicated to interrogating our relationships with data collection technologies. Libraries are increasingly investing in systems that can track and correlate user behavior.

This group will examine the methods and ethical implications of these technologies and seeks to establish guidelines for how to avoid intrusive technologies wherever we encounter it in our profession.

Documents

Advocacy Action Plan: https://osf.io/2smrf/

Digital Privacy Instruction Curriculum: https://osf.io/sebhf/

Ethics in Research Use of Library Patron Data: Glossary and Explainer: https://osf.io/bygj3/

Our investigative areas are:

Library-Built Systems

This sub-group investigates the systems that libraries create, such as open source repositories.

LBS Meeting Minutes

All minutes available in OSF, under 'Files' in the 'MeetingNotes' folder: https://osf.io/v2c3m/

Vendor Built Systems

This sub-group investigates the systems that libraries purchase or lease, such as an ILS or database.

VBS Meetings

2018-03-16 Minutes here: View Minutes

Instruction and Outreach

This sub-group investigates effective outreach and instruction strategies for our communities on topic related to data collection and privacy.

Instruction Meetings

2018-03-26 Minutes here: View Minutes

OSF repository here: View repository

Digital Privacy Curriculum here: View curriculum

Running meeting minutes here: View minutes

Professional Research Ethics

This sub-group will investigate surveillance ethics in library-based research. A Google Folder of the work is available here: View Folder.

A Zotero library for existing learning-analytics or patron-data principles documents and related material is here: View Zotero

Research Ethics Meetings

2018-03-15 Minutes here: View Minutes

Advocacy

This sub-group will investigate how to resist administrative pressure to surrender library data to campus and/or engage in privacy-damaging assessment practices.

Advocacy Meetings

2019-01-22 Minutes here: Download Minutes

018-02-28 Minutes here: Download Minutes

OSF Space

Minutes and other materials from this Working Group can be found at our OSF site: https://osf.io/bdyvq/

All Group Meetings

2019-10-01 Agenda and Minutes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GMI8zg5b7fsWsf9gRZibXkqgQBHv1E5cuE7d8PBYBq4/edit

2018-08-08 Agenda and Minutes: https://osf.io/g3sfp/

2018-06-04 Agenda and Minutes: https://osf.io/34e86/

2018-04-18 Agenda and Minutes: https://osf.io/j35vt/

2018-01-31 Agenda and Minutes: https://osf.io/6ygde/

Upcoming

TBD

Group Leadership

The ToS Working Group is currently co-convened by Scott W. H. Young (term 2018-2020) and Michelle Gibeault (term 2020-2022).

The group has previously been co-convened by Yasmeen Shorish (term 2017-2018) and Shea Swauger (term 2017-2019).

Get Involved

Please join our DLF-administered listserv. We also have a Slack space set up, with channels for each of the subgroups. Email Shea Swauger to gain access to the Slack space.

Data collection behavior extends far beyond the systems that libraries have direct connections with. One way to help track the news stories and investigative work done in this area is through Twitter, using the hashtag #panoptitech. Follow this tag and add any relevant stories that you come across!

Resources

The Library Freedom Project has some slide decks to start: https://libraryfreedomproject.org/
NISO Consensus Principles
ALA Privacy checklists and best practices: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/checklists
Michigan’s courses/events on privacy: https://www.coursera.org/learn/privacy-reputation-identity#syllabus and https://www.si.umich.edu/events/201801/privacymichigan#gsc.tab=0
Cornell’s resources: https://digitalhumanities.library.cornell.edu/privacy-resources
Prototyping Jason Griffey’s Measure the Future, which doesn’t capture identifying information (and he’s been vocal about privacy within libraries), but how to navigate communicate the usage of a tool like this. http://measurethefuture.net/2015/03/31/measure-the-future-privacy-and-more-details/
Karen Coyle’s privacy audit: http://www.kcoyle.net/privacy_audit.html