Privacy

Among the chief concerns of critics of Library 2.0 is the issue of privacy. The protection of the patron's privacy is a core value of librarianship and 1.0 libraries have gone to great measures to ensure data collected is disassociated with patron names. Since the adoption of the US Patriot Act, Librarians in the United States have even risked legal action to protect patron records from seizure by the FBI (Alexandrovna, L., 2006). In a way, Library 2.0 is fundamentally at odds with privacy protection; it is built largely on technologies that privilege the sharing of information, often of a very personal nature.

Users participating in social networks and other social applications freely divulge information that could potentially be used for malicious purposes. Integrating such products into the library limits the capacity of the librarian to protect user data. In some cases users have control of what information they share publicly. But can the library ethically endorse 2.0 applications that have the potential to compromise as user's privacy? Rory Litwin describes the essence of the dillemma in an attempt to urge libraries to proceed with caution, "A Myspace user may feel confident in her ability to control who can view her profile and bulletin board postings, but Rupert Murdoch still owns her data" (Litwin, R., 2006). And while web 2.0 applications almost certainly come with privacy policies it is doubtful that they are fully read much less understood.

It is often noted that the younger generation is less concerned with issues of privacy than those of previous generations but does that absolve libraries of their obligations? Rory Litwin suggests that younger users' lack of privacy concern is motivated by an adolescent desire to be notice and admired by their peers. He suggests that as this cohort matures, so will their understand privacy implications (Litwin, R., 2006).