I admit that I'm still working out my stand on a lot of privacy issues - on the one hand, I take part in a number of social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I've slowly linked Ellbeecee to my real name (though in a couple of spots it was already taken). Then I see things like the recent to-do about Facebook's Beacon, this EFF post about the sale of Live Journal to a Russian company (I have a Live Journal too, under a different name. I think I updated it a total of about 5 times), and this story about the Leesburg library's marketing efforts (news story. Information linked from the library website is here). Interestingly enough, I'm more bothered by that last one than the others.
Facebook's Beacon bothered me some - though I think I've got my profile pretty well locked down. It may not be perfectly locked down, but I'm also not putting anything embarrassing on there. The sale of LJ...well, that's new and bears watching, but I'm not up in arms yet. But the "Grocery store VIP cards" in libraries bothers me. But I'm still going to have to figure out how to articulate why it does as much as it does.
1 comment:
Well, there is to begin with the awfulness of the name--but beyond that, I think the library marketing scheme is appalling because the library is one of the few remaining places where we expect *not* to be marketed to. We've grown accustomed to having free services in a lot of places (the web, for one), but they are all supported by advertising, which brings with it a host of issues and problems.
It sounds like this library program is optional, which is something, but still, I'd rue the day my library started printing out custom coupons on my due date slip.
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