Social Media Privacy: A Rallying Cry to Librarians

Abstract

As information technology advances at a rapid pace, librarians must take action to continue their traditional roles as champions of privacy and intellectual freedom into the digital age. Social media is quickly becoming a major source of information and center for information seeking, and librarians have an opportunity to promote and help shape social media policies that protect users' privacy and assure that users can seek information without inhibition. This article recalls librarians' historical privacy campaigns, investigates the impact of social media on privacy, and offers librarians a plan for joining the social media user rights movement by advocating terms-of-use agreements that protect information seekers. q1 S ocial media is the most prevalent Internet activity, overtaking even pornography as the most popular online pastime (Fontecilla 2013). Social media has become people's primary source for news, opinions, and the human connection. It fosters social movements and catalyzes political change around the world. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies are quickly becoming ingrained in society as information portals. A recent Pew Research Center study found that more than 90% of online teens participate in social media. The social media giant Facebook has over a billion users (Pew Research Center 2013b). As one librarian explains, "If Facebook were a country and its users citizens, it would be the third most populous country in the world, behind only China and India" (Griffey 2010). q2 Librarians, as information science specialists, stand at the pinnacle of this information revolution, creating social media policies and methods of use. In some communities, libraries often provide the only Internet access available to the public, making libraries the sole access point for online social media (Privacy Resources 2013). q3 As social media provides library users with information, it also collects volumes of personal data, from biographical information to information about personal affiliations with people, organizations, and institutions. Social media data contains chat logs, message files, tweets, photos, videos, tags, GPS locations, "likes," check-ins, log-in timetables, pins, and even clicks.

Scholarly use of social media and altmetrics: A review of the literature

“…Konkiel and Scherer () suggest complementing traditional usage statistics with social media visibility for repository content. Although there is wide acceptance and use of social media tools, concerns are beginning to be raised regarding patron privacy (Lamdan, ).…”

Privacy practices in academic libraries in Ghana: Insight into three top universities

“…These measures include, but are not limited to, anonymizing data, restricting access to data, clearing search and browsing history, using encryption systems, blocking monitoring applications and investing in infrastructure that generally provides safe access to the Internet. These propositions together with the themes that emerged from our content analysis do not deviate from the recommendations in the literature (IFLA, 2018;Jeske et al, 2016;Lamdan, 2015) and should drive librarians to take tangible steps to secure personal information and promote the privacy of their patrons.…”

To Uphold and Resist: Protecting Intellectual Freedom through Progressive Librarianship

“…According to Lamdan, librarians need to defend intellectual freedom in the realm of social media just as much as it does in any other setting. 43 If privacy is necessary for social exchange, then intellectual freedom on social media is primarily a privacy issue. The U.S. government is increasingly requesting user tracking by Google and data collection from Facebook, and there is no legislation that protects user data from these requests.…”