It’s been pretty quiet on the blog, though it definitely has not been quiet in real life. I have lots of things that I’m looking forward to sharing with you! First off, I had a pair of papers published this … Continue reading
Category: privacy
Threads may offer users greater flexibility and control, but concerns over privacy are increasingly mainstream
The recent launch of Threads, Meta Platform’s (formerly Facebook) answer to X (formerly Twitter), highlights how social media is undergoing a period of reinvention. However, drawing on a recent study of Meta’s corporate messaging around the launch of t…
“Managing Data for Patron Privacy” is Here!
I’m thrilled to announce that my second book is officially out! I’m pleased to share the book “Managing Data for Patron Privacy: Comprehensive Strategies for Libraries“, which was co-written with the amazing Becky Yoose and published by ALA Editions. Summary: … Continue reading
Wrapping Up
I’ve had two giant projects finish up in the last month and am already feeling their loss. The first project is the Data Doubles project, which I’ve been working on in one form or another since 2017. This team been … Continue reading
Book Review: Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society by Firmin DeBrabander
In Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society, Firmin DeBrabander argues that rather than seeking to safeguard and revive privacy in the digital age, we should instead focus on becoming engaged citizens who contribute to a democ…
Citation Omitted: A Story of Re-identification
I published the article “Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review” in 2019. Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I omitted a couple of citations, instead listing them as “citation omitted in order to protect students’ … Continue reading
Recent Publications
It’s always nice to have new publications to put up on the blog, especially when they’re all things I’ve been working on for at least a year. If you’re interested in privacy and data and libraries, I hope you check … Continue reading
Privacy v Confidentiality
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the difference between privacy and confidentiality. This issue surfaces in libraries around handling patron data (relevant to my current line of research) but also more generally in how researchers handle human subjects data. … Continue reading →
Privacy and Academic Research
This guest blog is courtesy of Marlon Domingus, community lead research data management at Erasmus University Rotterdam. It reflects on their experience of supporting privacy in academic research, providing an infographic as a case study.
It is not easy to make a case against safeguarding privacy in general. As citizens we expect our government and the businesses we purchase services from, to take the necessary measures to protect the data we are willing to share with them, given a specific context.
In the same way citizens, patients, data subjects or any other terms we use for participants in our research, expect their data to be protected by the researcher. If we make privacy the default in our research design, and document this in our data management plan, we can manage the sharing of data post-research more easily. This data sharing helps to contribute to debates in society and enables responsible public-private collaboration.
So, no sensible person objects to safeguarding privacy, a basic right for all. But, this begs the question of HOW? Not only within your own research projects, but also within the collective entity we call the “university”. To paraphrase Robert Maynard Hutchins: ‘a university is not only a series of schools and departments held together by a central heating system’, but also by safeguarding privacy for students, faculty, staff and data subjects. This aspiration can be seen as a moral maxim to:
‘Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.’
— Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)
The infographic provides a helicopter view on implementing privacy in academic research. The images lead to underlying information; the frog perspective of safeguarding privacy yourself.
Privacy and Academic Research
This guest blog is courtesy of by Marlon Domingus, community lead research data management at Erasmus University Rotterdam. It reflects on their experience of supporting privacy in acadmeic research, provising a detailed inforgraphic as a case study.
It is not easy to make a case against safeguarding privacy in general. As citizens we expect our government and the businesses we purchase services from, to take the necessary measures to protect the data we are willing to share with them, given a specific context.
In the same way citizens, patients, data subjects or any other terms we use for participants in our research, expect their data to be protected by the researcher. If we make privacy the default in our research design, and document this in our data management plan, we can manage the sharing of data post-research more easily. This data sharing helps to contribute to debates in society and enables responsible public-private collaboration.
So, no sensible person objects to safeguarding privacy, a basic right for all. But, this begs the question of HOW? Not only within your own research projects, but also within the collective entity we call the “university”. To paraphrase Robert Maynard Hutchins: ‘a university is not only a series of schools and departments held together by a central heating system’, but also by safeguarding privacy for students, faculty, staff and data subjects. This aspiration can be seen as a moral maxim to:
‘Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.’
— Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)
The infographic provides a helicopter view on implementing privacy in academic research. The images lead to underlying information; the frog perspective of safeguarding privacy yourself.