Librarians have a professional responsibility to protect the right to access information free from surveillance. This right is at risk from a new and increasing threat: the collection and use of non-personally identifying information such as IP addresses through online behavioral tracking. This paper provides an overview of behavioral tracking, identifying the risks and benefits, describes the mechanisms used to track this information, and offers strategies that can be used to identify and limit behavioral tracking. We argue that this knowledge is critical for librarians in two interconnected ways. First, librarians should be evaluating recommended websites with respect to behavioral tracking practices to help protect patron privacy; second, they should be providing digital literacy education about behavioral tracking to empower patrons to protect their own privacy online.

Karma Police program profiled users, tracked "suspicious" Web searches worldwide.

Gov't requests for student data.

The web's information filters are making assumptions about you based on details that you might not even notice yourself.

Board meetings of the Lebanon Libraries in the small town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, don’t normally include signs that read “Down with Big Brother” and...

FFS FACEBOOK.

In July, the Kilton Public Library in New Hampshire partnered with the Library Freedom Project (LFP), to become the first library in the country to run a server connecting to Tor, an online network...

Homeland Security "does not make policy determinations for local communities."

During an appearance on the LITA Top Technology Trends panel in 2014, I was discussing privacy of patron data, and mentioned that I thought it was a good idea for libraries to run Tor nodes on libr…

You know that you’re being watched online. You know that your data is constantly being collected. The lack of privacy that tech users experience on a...

Board of trustees to discuss whether to turn Tor relay back on.

"Question protocol" as a way to balance collected information with actual needs, as well as informant privacy.

A public library in Lebanon finds itself at the center of a complicated debate over internet privacy and safety, after

A library in a small New Hampshire town started to help Internet users around the world surf anonymously using Tor. Until the Department of Homeland Security raised a red flag.

The Internet of Things is starting to emerge. You can tell it’s just starting, because we’re still using the ungainly name ‘‘Internet of Things.’’ It’s one of those coinages that tells you that we …

The company recently filed a patent on using social network data to influence lending decisions. God help us all.