Being a reference librarian and not a Webmaster, less technical was good for me. Coyle said that we do not have a constitutionally defined right to privacy in the United States and that most of our privacy protection comes from the Privacy Act of 1974, which was aimed at protecting us from the government. The enemy of privacy today, however, is private industry with its ability to track our movements on the Internet. Selling information about customers is big business, and Web companies are getting into the act. Personalized search engine pages are ploys to get more information from Web users.
Astrological forecasts are ploys to get users to reveal their birth dates.
Banner ads set cookies for shadowy third parties. Coyle said that libraries must be aware of these practices and teach their users to protect themselves. Also, she urged us to all write privacy statements and post them on our Web pages. LITA held a luncheon on the second day of its forum, and the food was really quite good. Her discussion eventually led to the need for libraries to remain important in the universities.