[WEB4LIB] Re: In defense of stupid users

[Patricia F Anderson]

You can sure bet I do! My usual statement of "anytime you need to log in, 
remember to log out again!" plus more. That 'search your own history' 
function is very desirable to many folks, but there is a real potential 
cost. Because A9 (unlike Google) does not offer you the option to delete 
searches afterwards, I try to be careful what searches I use it for, and 
try to think of someone else seeing them. I also am very careful on public 
machines to log out. I also demonstrate what functionality you can get 
from A9 *without* logging in. ;-)

PS - Bill, thanks a ton for the info on technical requirements needed to 
create a 'column' in A9 -- that will help a lot when I am trying to get 
folks off our backs locally. Still, it might be an interesting point for 
dialogue with our OPAC vendor!

Patricia Anderson, pfa at umich.edu

On Fri, 6 May 2005, Karen Coyle wrote:

> Patricia,
>
> I hope that when you teach the use of A9 you include a segment on privacy 
> issues. A9 stores a user's searches on its server, and if you use your Amazon 
> account (i.e. you have an Amazon cookie), then A9 correlates your searches 
> and your Amazon purchases. That means that your searches can be connected to 
> your name and address, which you have given to Amazon along with your credit 
> card information.  In this sense, using A9 is significantly different, from a 
> privacy point of view, from using a library resource, or even using a 
> resource licensed by a library. I highly recommend reading, and advising 
> library users, to read the A9 privacy policy:
>
> http://a9.com/-/company/privacypolicy.jsp
>
> If we in libraries are going to point users to resources, we have to make 
> sure that they are fully informed.
>
> kc