Librarian here. Please utilize the services your public library makes available to you for free! Even virtual usage is enough to convince cities to not lower budgets. We took massive hits to usage during the pandemic lockdowns, but you don't need to always come in to use your library! Look out for Kanopy, Hoopla and Libby and more at your local library!
Kanopy's prvacy policy says they collect data on the people using their service (including GPS coordinates), and they sell/share data with other 3rd parties including allowing Google to collect data on their users. They've also failed to reasonably secure user's data which has resulted in at least one data breach (https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/kanopy-streaming-...)
I haven't looked into Hoopla and Libby's policies yet, but I'd be willing to bet they're doing the same. Librarians have traditionally been very concerned with preserving the right to access content and information of all kinds without being monitored. They fought hard (and lost) against the US government being able to collect lists of the books and media users checked out from the library. It's odd to see a librarian advocate for people to use 3rd party services which will do exactly that along with far more invasive tracking.
I'm not just calling you out on this, although some have backed away from these services for various reasons (https://billypenn.com/2021/07/20/free-library-kanopy-movies-...) libraries around the country have embraced services which can track, censor, and put library user's data, privacy, and safety at risk. They advertise and push these services onto library patrons without informing them of the risks and without any mention of what card holders will be giving up by using them. Leaving it to library users to seek out and read through corporate privacy policies full of legal language and weasel wording seems very wrong to me.
In the US, as library card holders, we can't keep our reading lists out of the hands of the state, but we can do more to keep it out of the hands of private for profit companies and data brokers. I'm not saying there's no place for these types of services in libraries (although I'd love to see similar systems developed and operated entirely by library systems instead of 3rd parties), I just wish more libraries were looking out for the privacy of their users and were willing to do more of what they do best: keeping the people informed.
I don’t think my Mac allows GPS to be passed, but IP gives an approximation. Not sure how to get around that.
Do you know if the library gives my address, etc?
> I don’t think my Mac allows GPS to be passed, but IP gives an approximation. Not sure how to get around that.
I don't know how much apple restricts access to other things that can give away your location besides IP geolocation, but things like nearby wifi networks and nearby bluetooth beacons/devices are also being used to generate maps that can give extremely accurate location data. Typically cell tower data can ID a mobile device to within a mile or so, but where 5G is available the resolution is improved to feet instead of miles. If they can link the data they get from your library or from these streaming services to the data they get from your wireless provider they could know your part of town (4G) or which house (or even which room of that house) you're standing in (5G)
> Do you know if the library gives my address, etc?
To the feds? that's difficult to answer. The government doesn't give the public details of what kind of information they're taking and when. There's a decent article about the past collection of library data by the FBI and the resurgence of the practice post-9/11 here:
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/FBI-checking-out-Ame...
When they lost the fight to keep the government from snooping around some libraries responded by changing their data collection practices to limit as much as possible what data they had on their users. You can check with your library and see if they have your address on file. If they do, I would assume that it would be up for grabs if the government came knocking and I would recommend starting from the assumption that all available data is being collected routinely on everyone, from every location.
While the official line will be that this sort of collection by the state will be targeted (even if that means targeting everyone who checked out books about certain subjects or anyone who fits a certain profile) without a whistleblower willing to risk everything to come forward how could we ever really know the extent of the data collection taking place? One of the things that drove Snowden to become a whistleblower himself was that he knew from first hand experience that the then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the director of the NSA Keith Alexander (who is currently sitting on Amazon's board of directors) were lying to Congress while under oath about when where and how the agency was spying on Americans. There's really no reason to take these organizations at their word, or to assume that even those in the highest offices in our government would know what they were up to any better than you or I do.
Oh, thought we were talking about kanopy. I only use it with wifi on a Mac. I’ve seen the “United States of Secrets” Frontline special.
Yeah, in that case it could just depend on how up to date their map of your nearby access points are. I haven't seen the “United States of Secrets” Frontline special, but I see it's on youtube so thanks for that!
On PBS and Kanopy too, haha. At least it was.
While I am concerned about data brokers and tracking, it's my personal opinion that that's just the sad reality of technology and the internet today, and most people just don't care.
You and I may care about signing up for services and not being tracked across the internet for the kinds of interests we have, but the way I see it, and the way many suburban and rural libraries and librarians may also see it, our patrons were probably already going to subscribe to Netflix or Amazon Prime, and all their egregious privacy violations.
While most (I would hope) librarians would agree that keeping a patron's private information, including their reading and watching habits be kept secret, equal access to materials and information is far more important.
I would love if larger libraries could develop their own systems for free content that can be accessed by their patrons and perhaps even by other libraries, but that's just not the reality we live in. Similar to how every IP holder wants to create their own subscription-based platforms for content, libraries would be like Netflix. The content people actually want will always be not on Netflix. In the end, many suburban and rural libraries are desperate for usage by their populace, no matter the cost to privacy.
My library has been really curtailing the amount I can use Hoopla… Libby is pretty good as long as I can find a less popular book (or wait in line), but Hoopla is almost always already at the daily lending limit.
What is the best way to contact libraries/librarians for API access to their library?
I want to build an app which will dump me in random pages of my checkouted books, instead of me gathering energy to do it. I have other features planned.
I am stuck with how to interface with my local library, like Libby does. Any ideas ?
Just call 'em up and ask around, or send an email, I suppose. There's gotta be somebody there who knows.
Granted, they're unlikely to just give you special access, but you could at least learn something.
Librarian here.
Libraries are just paying for the ability to offer Libby to patrons. Libby then taps into a login API for the ILS a library uses to check if a patron's library card and PIN are tied to an eligible account, and Libby offers its own content based on whatever each library can afford to offer.
You would need to offer your own content, ultimately, with the Libby model. Same goes for OverDrive, Hoopla and Kanopy.