Re: Privacy and the Google settlement (long, sorry)

[Rick Anderson <rick.anderson@utah.edu>]

> The American Association of Librarians advocated strongly and 
> successfully in the 90's against the encroachment on personal 
> liberties. Has this changed?  Is everything in our country now 
> simply a commodity including our privacy, our civil rights, and 
> our libraries?

I think all of us agree that personal liberties are important, 
and that civil rights and libraries are not (and shouldn't be) 
commodities.  (Privacy is actually somewhat like a commodity, 
since all of us trade it every day for other things that we value 
-- such as the ability to buy things online, to buy things on 
credit, or to contribute to LIBLICENSE-L.)

What we were discussing, however, wasn't whether or not privacy 
is a good thing, but rather whether or not the proposed Google 
settlement poses an actual threat to privacy.  I don't believe it 
does, for the reasons outlined in my original posting.  I'm still 
very interested in hearing opposing views on that matter -- but 
pointing out the importance of privacy and civil rights doesn't 
amount to an argument that Google is threatening them.

-- 
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dir. For Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library
Univ. of Utah
rick.anderson@utah.edu