Worried about Your Privacy? Come to the Library!
We live in an era of unprecedented surveillance – with a wealth of our information collected, analyzed, and sold, often without our knowledge or consent. Governments and law enforcement enjoy broad new legal authority, and the technological means, to pry into the personal lives of thousands or even millions of people at once. Private companies – particularly technology companies – track every transaction people make online, from what they search for in Google, to how long they linger on a specific page, to what kinds of messages they respond to and post on social media. Such surveillance used to be the stuff of dystopian novels and Stalinist dictatorships, and is now part of the price of having a cell phone.
Yet freedom from exactly this sort of intrusion has always been, and remains today, an essential ingredient for any democratic society – so much so, that intellectual freedom is enshrined in constitutional law, both in Canada and abroad. Intellectual freedom requires the freedom to examine other ideas and other interpretations of life than those currently approved by the local community or by society in general, including those ideas and interpretations which may be unconventional or unpopular.
At Toronto Public Library (TPL), we recently hosted CitizenLab, the Canadian Civil Liberties Assn, and the Library Freedom Project, for a discussion that grapples with these issues, and most importantly, what you can do about it. Public Libraries can help you take back control of your personal information online, and secure your digital lives. Have a look:
We are happy to announce Digital Privacy workshops are happening now at select branches across the Greater Toronto Area. So, if you are worried about identity theft, concerned about who might be following you on the Internet, or you simply want to keep your private affairs private, then sign up now and learn the habits, and technologies that will help you.
Classes are currently available at Cederbrae, Parliament, Albion, Parkdale, and Fort York Branches, with more happening in the months to come! Sign up online or call the local branch.
Questions about TPL’s digital privacy project can be directed to Jonathon Hodge – jhodge@torontopubliclibrary.ca
11 thoughts on “Worried about Your Privacy? Come to the Library!”
For the past year I’ve been cyber stalked and mainly for most of the prior year, I’ve used the public library as my main spot for web browsing, email or job search. I don’t consider the library a safe place.
Sorry to hear that you have been cyber-stalked. Unfortunately, I think this can occur no matter where one accesses the internet. That being said, I also think exercising some added caution when accessing the internet in any public space is warranted. Yet, one can be extra cautious and still experience cyber crimes of all sorts…I guess it’s best to assume nothing is (truly) private when working online.
I do consider the library a safe place, but I don’t use library computers very often. In my local branch, which is small, most of the computer stations are constantly occupied anyway. And personally, I often use the library specifically to *escape* devices that have internet access. I am more productive and at my best using good, old-fashioned pen and paper, and (non-digital) books. (And just as a little aside, I’m 31…not that it matters, but just wanted to help put to rest the myth that “younger” people are automatically gaga for anything digital/online!)
Also, I definitely didn’t mean to brush off the fact that you need internet access…in this era, a job search is practically impossible without it…
And I do hope the cyber-stalking stops.
Some great resources are available @ https://ssd.eff.org/en
The out of date browsers and plugins at the library sure hinders things for people wanting to protect themselves in library.
The biggest privacy issue is with the catalogue. Selling everyone’s searches to a private US company is terrible, just so you can provide a few tiny images to go along with your searches? Will you ever change that, or have people who understand the problem be involved in the decision?
Hi Chris,
Thanks for that share! I am a BIG fan of the EFF and some of their material is in our training packages, so please do join a class if you have the time as I am sure you could offer some useful contributions to the groups.
Regarding your specific question re: the catalogue, we are currently engaged in a review of our internal privacy practices and policies. I will be sure that your concern makes it into those discussions. Many thanks for your remarks.
cool and glad that the TPL is taking this on.
I’ll be sure to check out a workshop.
M.Andrews
Very glad that the Toronto Public Library is having these events on Digital Privacy.
Hi FGC,
That is indeed a difficult state of affairs you find yourself in. I hope you have found some resolution. In the meantime, the Library is about as safe a place to browse the internet as you will find – we do not log your search histories, you can use an anonymous login to get on to our public computers and all your work is purged at the end of your time (which is to say, no permanent record is maintained). When you browse, use Chrome browser and select ‘Incognito’ mode from the menu button in the upper right corner of the browser (it sits right below the red X that closes the browser). You can also add extensions to Chrome for your session which will help too – from that same menu button, select ‘settings’ then ‘Extensions’ in the upper-left of the new window. Then Search for and install both Privacy Badger, and Ublock Origin. Once installed, both will help stop any 3rd party from following what you are doing online in Chrome. This are not perfect solutions (there are others the Library is working on, but that is a long process!) but they will certainly help. Good Luck!
Sorry I missed this. It looks great, and MUCH needed these days! Thank you for continuing to provide amazing (free) services.
The library is completely hypocritical about privacy. If the library cares so much about privacy, why does its website have trackers for Google? Despite what they claim, it is not anonymous. Google sends cars around to located your house by your SSID. They also fingerprint you so that they can’track your wen browsing.
The library should have absolutely no connection with Google at they really care about your privacy.
Hi John,
Thank you for you comments and for raising legitimate concerns re: Google. Google is one of the largest internet companies in the world, and they do very much log what people do on their services – be it using search, or their free services like email, calendar, etc. All of these free services – from Google or any other internet company – are ‘free’ to the consumer as we are the product these companies are selling. That is to say, our habits, behaviours, buying patterns, etc. are packaged and sold to 3rd parties so that companies can more effectively advertise to us. Google is a major player in this marketplace.
One of the topics addressed in our workshops is 3rd party trackers of your browsing habits, so I urge you to join one of our classes listed as we address some of the options individuals have to secure themselves a degree of privacy and anonymity.
Finally, regarding the libraries website and use of Google services, we are currently engaged in an internal review of our services, data retention and sharing practices, etc. As per a previous commenter on this blog, the concerns you have raised will certainly be part of that ongoing internal discussion. Many thanks for your comments, and I hope you can make it to one of our programs in the spring.