Participatory Approaches for Designing and Sustaining Privacy-Oriented Library Services

Abstract

Privacy is a long-held value of information professionals, but new technologies of the contemporary digital age pose new risks to privacy. In an effort to build participatory, profession-wide action in support of designing privacy-oriented library services, two groups were formed with the goal of generating ideas and sustaining action: the National Forum on Web Privacy and Web Analytics, and Digital Library Federation Technologies of Surveillance Working Group. In this paper, members of these two groups present case study descriptions and analysis via reflective self-assessment. The authors discuss how these groups can serve as models of participatory action for integrating the value of privacy into the design of library services, technologies, policy, and outreach.

Orienting privacy literacy toward social change

“…Here, the goal of privacy literacy is for communities of people to recognize the privacy issues most salient to them and to work toward addressing the issues. Like the other conceptualizations, this one responds to the rise of digital technologies that exacerbate surveillance (Macrina and Glaser, 2014; Smith et al , 2017), generate vast amounts of data about people (Hautea et al , 2017; Jones, Briney, et al , 2020; Young et al , 2020) and harm marginalized communities (Lewis et al , 2018; Petty et al , 2018). But it does so recognizing that datafication is not a universal experience – its harms and gains are unevenly distributed and its privacy implications context-specific.…”