Reader surveillance of Digital Books
The world’s largest publisher may be selling readers’ personal data to the highest bidder.
Reader surveillance is a deeply intersectional threat
Reader surveillance is a deeply intersectional threat, according to a congressional letter issued last week from a coalition of groups whose interests span civil rights, anti-surveillance, anti-book ban, racial justice, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+, immigrant, and antimonopoly.1
25+ human rights organizations are calling for a Congressional investigation into Big Tech and Publishing’s overreaching control of the content, reader data, and existence of digital books. The coalition letter focuses on the cascading harms of a small number of corporations controlling Americans’ ability to read and create books—rights that are essential to a functioning democracy. 2
For centuries, people have read books without being surveilled, wondering if what they’re reading is what the author wrote, or worrying that their book might disappear. These rights parallel a long history of battles to protect the right to read anonymously as well as to resist censorship and combat exclusion in publishing. With the increasing popularity of digital books, such battles have entered a new, much more opaque playing field. 3
Navigating Risk in Vendor Data Privacy Practices: An Analysis of Elsevier’s ScienceDirect.
By analyzing the privacy practices of the world’s largest publisher, the report describes how user tracking that would be unthinkable in a physical library setting now happens routinely through publisher platforms. As much of the research lifecycle shifts to online platforms owned by a small number of companies, the report, Navigating Risk in Vendor Data Privacy Practices: An Analysis of Elsevier’s ScienceDirect. highlights why users and institutions should actively evaluate and address the potential privacy risks as this transition occurs rather than after it is complete.4
“Library Link of the Day” -Library Link of the Day (tk421.net)
Congress Must Block Insidious Digital Book Bans & Dangerous Reader Surveillance (battleforlibraries.com)