Open Media on Privacy and the Cloud

Catherine Hart wrote an excellent piece on privacy and storing data in the Canadian infosphere on OpenMedia:

As more and more of our personal information circulates online, is stored in ‘the cloud’, or is moved about on USBs and other portable devices, it’s essential that we make sure those data flows are secure. And as we’ve been seeing, due to a lack of safeguards they’re not secure at all when it comes to the government. Cloud services are likely more secure for both citizens and the government than carrying around USB keys or hard drives full of sensitive data (see “data breaches” below), but that increased security goes out the window when government bureaucrats recklessly use them for spying without our consent.

I tweeted it already but just wanted to stress how good a resource that post is. It’s filled with links so if you’re inclined to get lost in rabbit holes that’s an excellent place to start.

This kind of article is important because it’s not focused on the personalities involved, but the policies. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should be supporting Snowden and Manning and Swartz as people, but the issues these people brought to light are bigger even than them.

Organizational Transparency and Closed Doors

We haven’t been talking about the Library Archives Canada/Canadiana digitization project here on the IPC blog these past few weeks for a couple of reasons. The first is mostly because a lot of the discussion has been taking place on mailing lists I’m not actually on, so whenever I sit down to write I feel a bit like I’m missing some crucial context. But the bigger reason is that other people have been writing very clearly on the matter and I haven’t had anything to add.

I’d suggest that the very best piece of commentary I’ve read has been Mita Williams’ The Heritage Heritage Minute and The Digital Library of Canada We Lost. She goes through the chronology of the situation and provides a very even-handed analysis of why people have concerns about the project. Her essay is peppered with links, including to Kevin Read’s We Ask for Transparency, Heather Morrison’s explanation of why the misuse of Open Access in the leaked documents was problematic, and of course Bibliocracy (I’ll just link to Myron’s most recent post which came after Williams’ was published.

In the face of all that there’s not a lot that I would be adding. But I want to make a comment tying this together with the other big information news of the last month. The American Library Association just had one of their annual conferences and at it they passed a resolution about the NSA spying scandal saying:

that the American Library Association recognize Edward Snowden as a whistleblower who, in releasing information that documents government attacks on privacy, free speech, and freedom of association, has performed a valuable service in launching a national dialogue about transparency, domestic surveillance, and overclassification.

Interestingly, the next day that resolution was “replaced” by this resolution in which Snowden’s name was removed and the language was changed to reflect a more general support for “privacy, open government, government transparency and accountability.” In a letter to the Social Responsibilities Round Table Al Kagan said:

As progressive councilors have discussed for the past two years, it is all fine and good to support the results of whistleblowing, but this does not happen without the brave action of individuals. Whistleblowers put their jobs, their careers,their freedom, and sometimes their lives in danger by taking bold measures to bring abuse of the public trust to the media. Nothing happens without the individuals, and they need all the support that they can get.

He also called for librarians to be braver and lead discussion, rather than simply accepting backroom deals.

Libraries in general could benefit from a more open discussion of how our organizations work, especially when some members have issues with the results. Being quiet and unquestioning doesn’t help anyone improve.