Libraries and Privacy

Public Libraries have always felt it was important to protect the privacy of their patrons.  Your reading and viewing choices are your own, and we respect that.  In fact, this philosophy is imbedded in the Canadian Library Association’s Code of Ethics, which states that members of the CLA (the Collingwood Public Library is one) have the individual and collective responsibility to “protect the privacy and dignity of library users and staff.”

As Canadians, we watched with great interest what was happening south of the border where the Patriot Act allowed Homeland Security to enter public libraries and demand the personal information, including borrowing records, of persons who were under investigation.  American librarians pushed back, but the precedent was scary to say the least.

On December 9, 2014, Canada enacted a similar piece of legislation, although for a different purpose. The Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act (previously known as Bill C-13 and commonly called the Cyberbullying Act) contained some provisions which would seem to allow Canadian authorities to have similar powers in demanding private information from public libraries.

The Cyberbullying Act is laudable in intention.  For example, it makes the dissemination of private and intimate images illegal without the subject’s consent. This is an excellent thing.  There can be no debate about that. Posting embarrassing and humiliating images online without consent is now a criminal act. But the Act also gives police broader powers.  In the past, if the police were conducting an investigation and wished to see patron record information in a public library, including records of that patron’s computer activity while in the library, they needed to go through a formal subpoena process. The new legislation would seem to suggest that this is no longer necessary and that library staff would be prevented from seeking legal counsel in such cases.  So far, to my knowledge, there have been no cases of police requesting such records from a public library in Canada.  Still, the possibility is disquieting. It is ironic that an Act that is designed to protect a citizen’s online privacy might also be used to invade it.

We live in a world where the notion of privacy is changing, where it becomes normal to share our most personal experiences with complete strangers.  But I do think that there exists a trust between library patrons and their public library. There is an understanding that when we collect personal information from you, we do not share it.  If that trust is eroded, it makes us feel less secure as citizens.  I don’t think any librarian would stand in the way of a legitimate police investigation (I personally have no sympathy with cyberbullies), but we all need more privacy protection, not less.

--Ken Haigh