MISfortunes
Libraries promise to destroy user data to avoid threat of government surveillance
Libraries promise to destroy user data to avoid threat of government surveillance
Public and private libraries are reacting swiftly to the election of Donald Trump, promising to destroy user information before it can be used against readers and backing up data abroad. The New York Public Library (NYPL) changed its privacy policy on Wednesday to emphasize its data-collection policies.
Backlash from the librarian community to Trump’s election was so rapid that the American Library Association (ALA) issued an apology for its 18 November statement, saying its members would “work with President-elect Trump” and his transition team.
“We understand that content from these press releases, including the 11/18/16 release that was posted in error, was interpreted as capitulating to and normalizing the incoming administration,” the ALA president, Julie B Todaro, wrote in American Libraries Magazine. Todaro said that the ALA’s core values remained unchanged: “free access, intellectual freedom, privacy and confidentiality”.
“It is clear that many of these values are at odds with messaging or positions taken by the incoming administration,” she wrote.



