Privacy

De Rosa, Cathy, Joanne Cantrell, and Andy Havens, et. al. Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World: A Report to the OCLC Membership, Dublin, OH: OCLC, 2007. At: http://www.oclc.org/reports/sharing/default.htm
This report is based on a major survey of the attitudes and perceptions regarding sharing, privacy, and trust on the network of people in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Like its major predecessors Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition (2003) and Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005), it is a weighty document printed in full-color on glossy paper to do justice to all of the tables, piecharts, pictures, and diagrams. However, it is also freely available as a downloadable PDF file, either by individual section or in its entirety. It is chock-full of interesting findings, and well worth spending a lot of time with it, which is almost required given its scope. One tidbit of note, although not all that surprising, is that respondents want to have their privacy protected by default, but also want to have the option to give up that privacy when they wish -- for example, to gain the benefits of social networking. Note: I am employed by OCLC, although I did not have anything to do with this report.
--Reprinted by permission from Current Cites 18(10) (October 2007)