*Will You Stand for Privacy?*
/A Message to ALA Members from ALA President Barbara Stripling/
In early June, reports of the National Security Agency's secret
practices rang loudly around the world. News reports detailed PRISM,
the U.S. government surveillance program that obtains the Internet
records from ten U.S. companies: Verizon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google,
Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. It appears that
phone records, emails, photos, and social networking activities have
been collected and catalogued by the FBI and the NSA over the last
seven years.
ALA is saddened by recent news that the government has obtained vast
amounts of personal information and electronic communications of
millions of innocent people. The extent of the personal information
received by the government is very troubling. Those of you who have
been long-time members of ALA know that we have always argued that
provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act encroach on the privacy expectations
of library users. Worse, the surveillance law erodes our basic First
Amendment rights, all while undermining the very fabric of our democracy.
When we spoke out in 2001 against the passage of the PATRIOT Act, we
were concerned about Section 215, a provision of the law that allowed
the government powers to obtain "business records and other tangible
things" from suspected terrorists. We were fearful that the government
would come into libraries without warning and take library records on
individual patrons without reasonable suspicion. Libraries were one of
the first groups to publicly oppose the bill, and many legislators and
privacy experts have noted that Congress would not have understood the
chilling impact on privacy if librarians had not brought it to the
nation's attention. Librarians were so vocal in their opposition to
the law that Section 215 was called the "library provision." We could
not have imagined then what is happening today. Today, in spite of the
leak allegations, the government continues to use the "library
provision" to vacuum up private communication records of Americans on
a massive scale.
Even the most cynical among us could not have predicted that the Obama
Administration---an administration that campaigned on the promise of
greater government transparency and openness---would allow a massive
surveillance program to infringe upon the basic civil liberties of
innocent, unsuspecting people. We understand the responsibility of the
government to investigate terrorism and other harmful acts. But the
need to protect the public does not mean that Americans have to
relinquish their Fourth Amendment privacy rights in the process. ALA
has already joined other civil liberties groups
<http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=3979&client=ala1&campaign=1245&email=sampsonz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
to call for more legal review, judicial oversight, transparency and
public accountability. Our country needs to find the right balance.
We need to restore the balance between individual rights and terrorism
prevention, and libraries are one of the few trusted American
institutions that can lead true public engagement on our nation's
surveillance laws and procedures. Libraries have the tools, resources
and leaders that can teach Americans about their First Amendment
privacy rights and help our communities discuss ways to improve the
balance between First Amendment rights and government surveillance
activities. And patrons are ready to learn about their privacy rights
from their libraries.
*Next Steps: Be a Leader at Your Library*
We are calling on librarians to facilitate local public dialogues and
educational sessions on government surveillance and transparency. To
help libraries convene privacy forums and moderate public
conversations, ALA is launching "ALA Liberty
<http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=3980&client=ala1&campaign=1245&email=sampsonz@xxxxxxxxxxx>,"
a new privacy website that contains tools that librarians can use to
host educational sessions and public forums that help Americans
understand their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
The website contains the following resources:
Guide for Moderators
<http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=3981&client=ala1&campaign=1245&email=sampsonz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
(PDF)
This document outlines the steps and process for moderators to convene
a forum on privacy in their community. Libraries are a perfect
location for this form of civic engagement. Librarians may choose to
serve as moderators or find other individuals in the community to fill
the moderator's role. This PDF contains the information necessary for
moderators of a forum on privacy.
Guide for Participants
<http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=3982&client=ala1&campaign=1245&email=sampsonz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
(PDF)
Distribute this document to individuals participating in a
library-hosted community discussion on privacy. It provides an
overview of the deliberative process and outlines the privacy issues
to be considered.
Checklist for Convening a Forum on Privacy
<http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=3983&client=ala1&campaign=1245&email=sampsonz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
(PDF)
This document outlines the steps needed to host a successful forum on
privacy in your library.
Choose Privacy Week Resources
<http://maildogmanager.com/link.html?url=3984&client=ala1&campaign=1245&email=sampsonz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
This offers videos that can be used for programming on surveillance.
The site includes guest blogs from national privacy advocates and
American Library Association t-shirts and posters.
_Please do not respond to this email._If you have any questions about
the privacy toolkit, contact Jazzy Wright, press officer of the ALA
Washington Office at jwright@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jwright@xxxxxxxxxxx>
or (202) 628-8410 <tel:%28202%29%20628-8410>
Barbara Stripling
ALA President