ALA Releases Reader Privacy Guidelines For K-12 Students

From the American Library Association:

On May 2, 2016, the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee approved a new document, “Library Privacy Guidelines for Students in K-12 Schools.” The document, which surveys the state of students’ privacy in K-12 schools, provides guidance for school libraries and educational institutions seeking to protect students’ privacy, both while online and while reading or engaging in research. The document was developed by the IFC Privacy Subcommittee, with input from additional ALA committees, interest groups, and roundtables with an interest in privacy.
“Today’s students not only face all of the potential threats to the privacy of their reading habits that adults face from government surveillance and commercial tracking, they also face a system of continuous assessment and oversight by an educational establishment that seeks to track almost all aspects of the student’s educational activities,” said Michael Robinson, chair of the ALA-IFC Privacy Subcommittee, and Head of Systems at the Consortium Library, University of Alaska – Anchorage. “In developing these guidelines, we not only want to provide librarians and educators with appropriate data management and security practices, we also want to inspire a new regard for students’ privacy rights, especially their right to keep their reading habits and intellectual activities private.”

Direct to Library Privacy Guidelines for Students in K-12 Schools
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