Librarians Mount Defense Against Government Surveillance

Unlike the fickle
winds of public opinion, the American Library Association (ALA)
has maintained its long-standing principled opposition to
government snooping. The Washington Post
reports that librarians have been “among the loudest voices
urging freedom of information and privacy protections” since Edward
Snowden’s leaks:

“As technology has changed and we’ve moved from the card
catalogue and paper records to electronic records, we are always
looking to destroy the record as soon we can,” Emily Sheketoff [of
the ALA] said. “When you return a book, the record is destroyed so
that when the government comes we can say that we legitimately only
know what you have out at the time.”

Some librarians recognize this doesn’t go far enough,
particularly since
many people use libraries mainly for Internet access:

In Massachusetts, the local branch of the American Civil
Liberties Union has partnered with some librarians to
deploy services like anonymous browsing tool Tor that can shield
patrons’ activity from electronic snooping.

Librarians have long been hostile to prying government eyes. In
1972, Bucknell University librarian
Zoia Horn was arrested after refusing to hand over the patron
information of anti-war protestors. At the end of the Cold War, the
FBI
acquiesced to librarian outrage in New York City and limited
its Library Awareness Program, which sought to enlist librarians in
uncovering Soviet spies.

The ALA was also at the forefront protesting the PATRIOT Act’s
surveillance provisions:

Section 215 of the act…was called the “library provision.” The
implication was that the government could use it to get library
records. By 2003, some libraries placed signs in their lobbies,
warning patrons that the government could obtain their records
under the bill. Hundreds of meetings were organized to discuss the
privacy implications of the law at libraries around the
country.

In our jaded post-Snowden world, it seems that librarians’
almost Pynchonian paranoia was
more than justified. But one can‘t help
wonder if the ALA‘s efforts these days are all for
naught, given the
apparently limitless technical and legal capabilities of
the National Security Administration—and the
frustrating delays of reform:

“Now we know that it really didn’t matter what they passed,”
Sheketoff said. “What they were sweeping up was everything, way
beyond what anybody had ever envisioned.”

Some, like George Christian, one of four Connecticut library
officials unlucky enough to receive a national security letter
in 2005 demanding patron data, are pessimistic about the
future:

“We are obviously all in trouble,” he said. “What happened to us
seems like kindergarten compared to the revelations
from Snowden.”

The lack of Internet access on traditional bound books is
starting to look like a feature and not a bug: although they’re
bulky and you can’t tap a word for an interactive definition,
former NSA chief Keith Alexander also can’t look over your shoulder
and lecherously follow your progress through Fifty Shades of
Gray—and thanks to
privacy laws already in place for physical books borrowed from
libraries, hopefully he won’t ever know about your embarrassing
reading habits.