Netscape & Users Privacy

[Laura Quilter]

> > I hate to bring this up, but there are times as a system
> > administrator or lab administrator when the information
> > can really be handy. Recently we had a awkward situation
> > with a man who was looking at pornography on the web and
> > masturbating in front of female patrons. When working
> > with security to try to catch him, the police asked to
> > see what he had been looking at on the web in order to
> > help in developing a psych profile. So we did this, and
> > went back and looked for the specific times and machines
> > we knew he had used. I don't know how much help it was,
> > and we do NOT routinely spy on our patrons this way. In
> > this case I felt it was warranted. If you normally don't
> > use this, and 99% of the patrons don't know about it,
> > are you really putting their privacy at risk? We set

If patrons don't know about it, then their privacy is even MORE at risk,
since they don't know how to take steps to guard it.  Patrons who *know*
how to empty the cache can do so, but that's hardly all or even most or
even many patrons.

Given the history of police abuse of power in Chicago (and many other
places) - illegally tracking all kinds of groups - I am disinclined to
make available for police or FBI use any kind of patron records.  It is a
serious matter, and I am thankful that librarians have refused to give up
circulation records for books, and I hope that we protect our patron's
privacy on the Internet, as well.

> > the link tracking to two days, and keep the cache small,
> > but patrons reset these and we don't worry about it.
> > Patrons who are concerned about their privacy tend to
> > empty the cache at the end of their session. Surely,
> > under normal circumstances, this is sufficient?
> > 
> > Pat Anderson
> > 
> > 
> >  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> > P. F. (Pat) Anderson               "Learning, study, reading,
> > Barnes Learning Resources Center    and the preservation of
> > Galter Library / Northwestern U.    books are all integral
> > 303 E. Chicago Ave.                 to spiritual practice.
> > Chicago IL 60611-3008               We get into trouble when
> > 312/503-8238, voice                 we give up any of these ..."
> > 312/503-8028, fax
> > Internet: pfa at nwu.edu               Thomas Moore, Meditations,
> > WWW: http://www.galter.nwu.edu/        pg. 29
> > WWW: http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~pfa/pfahome.html
> >  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> > 
> > 
> 

Laura M. Quilter   /   lauramd at uic.edu
Electronic Services Librarian
University of Illinois at Chicago
http://www.uic.edu/~lauramd/

"If I can't dance, I don't want to be 
in your revolution."  -- Emma Goldman