Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Privacy Revolution

I confess: I'm a Law and Order addict. Fortunately, with cable TV, it's easy to feed that addiction! I was watching an episode last night that started a rant my poor SO had to endure. After searching a vanished murder suspect's apartment with a warrant, Briscoe and Green found several library books. They visited the library, talked to a few librarians, and found out not only what other books the patron had checked out, but recent sites she had searched online.

I, of course, started shrieking about First Amendment rights and Hollywood's obvious oblivion to how a well-trained librarian would actually respond to such a request!

With FISA, the Patriot Act and library gag orders an all-too-present phenomenon in today's libraries, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom has launched a new online survey that will only take you a few minutes to complete. Entitled Privacy: Is It Time For a Revolution? the survey examines attitudes towards corporate and governmental privacy issues.

One can only marvel at the ironic timing--with Congress due to pass the FISA bill today, granting immunity to telecoms.

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