This issue of Library Technology Reports explores the issues and technologies needed to deploy a library website with adequate protections for the privacy of those who visit.
This issue of Library Technology Reports (vol. 55, no. 7), Protecting Privacy on Library Websites: Critical Technologies and Implementation Trends, explores the issues and technologies needed to deploy a library website with adequate protections for the privacy of those who visit. Without the implementation of standard encryption components, the online information-seeking activities of website visitors are vulnerable to exposure. Even when a site is properly encrypted, privacy can be circumvented through tracking agents placed on the site for analytics or advertising. Following discussion of the technical issues with implications for user privacy, this report includes the results of a broad study of the state of practice for these privacy-related technologies among public and academic libraries in the United States. This study reveals great progress among these libraries in the strengthening of privacy on their websites, though substantial gaps remain.
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Privacy versus Personalized Services |
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Protection of Online Information-Seeking Activities |
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Chapter 2 Key Technologies with Implications for Privacy |
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Need for Encryption of Websites |
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HTTPS for Identity Validation |
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Low Threshold of Difficulty and Expense |
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Advancing to HTTPS Everywhere |
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Meeting the HTTPS Deadline |
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Challenges in Implementing HTTPS |
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Analytics and Advertising Networks |
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Measuring Website Use through Analytics Services |
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Multiple Tracking Code Options |
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Advertising Networks and Social Media |
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Chapter 3 The Current State of Practice |
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Initial Data Collection and Cleanup |
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Website Validation Script |
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Findings: The Current State of Practice |
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Chapter 4 Looking Forward |
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Strategies for Achieving Privacy-Respecting Services |
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Ongoing Research and Analysis |
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Additional References and Resources |
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Marshall Breeding serves as the Director for Innovative Technology and Research at the Vanderbilt University Libraries in Nashville, Tennessee. He has authored several previous Library Technology Report issues: "Electronic Security Strategies for Libraries," "Strategies for Measuring and Implementing E-Use," "Integrated Library Software: A Guide to Multiuser, Multifunction Systems," "Wireless Networks in Libraries," "Web Services and the Service-Oriented Architecture," and "Open Source Integrated Library Systems." Breeding is also a contributing editor to Smart Libraries Newsletter, published by ALA TechSource, and has authored the feature "Automated Systems Marketplace" for Library Journal for the last six years. His column "Systems Librarian" appears monthly in Computers in Libraries magazine.
