[Web4lib] [web4lib] survey on library website third party analytics privacy concerns

[David Kane]

Libraries knowing your IP address is one thing.  I don't think that
this is a serious issue because no librarian I know is going to pore
over reams of IP addresses to try and connect particular real
individuals to possible book crimes.

However, Google analytics works in such a way as to make it possible
for individual users to be tracked across all sites that use Google
analytics.  If those users also have Google accounts, as many do, then
suddenly Google is going to know a lot about you, as an individual.
Using something else would remove any significant privacy concerns
that I might have about this.  One such program might  be AWstats,
which analyses the server log files.

David.

On 25 August 2010 00:12, Brian Tingle <brian.tingle.cdlib.org at gmail.com> wrote:
> |There are a number of references to 'privacy concerns' in some of the
> |responses.
> |
> |Do these concerns have any validity, or to they arise from uncertainty
> |and insufficient understanding of the technologies used to gather these
> |data?
>
> I think that is an open question.  Like most things, there are trade offs.
>
> As I understand it, German law considers IP addresses to be personally
> identifying information, and .de web site operators are not allowed to
> track this.
>
> http://dees-club.com/google-analytics-german-privacy-paid-analytics-tools/
>
> My libraries' current interpretation of privacy policy categorizes IP
> addresses as personally identifying information.
>
> Even if no personally identifying information is logged, research
> suggests that with enough data tied to a specific yet not personally
> identified user such as with the cookies used by google analytics,
> data can be de-anonymized
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal
> http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/12/securitymatters_1213
>
> I think it is important that a) library privacy policies clearly
> indicate the use of google analytics on their websites and b) make it
> clear to end users that they may opt-out of behavioral tracking
>
> http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en
>
> I've put in a proposal to have a discussion on this topic at the
> Digital Library Federation Fall Forum.
>
> -- Brian
>
>
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>
>



-- 
David Kane, MLIS.
Systems Librarian
Waterford Institute of Technology
Ireland
http://library.wit.ie/
T: ++353.51302838
M: ++353.876693212