Choose Privacy at Your Local Library

Posted: May 2, 2016

Choose Privacy Week, celebrated this year May 1-7, is an education and awareness campaign that invites citizens into a national conversation about the right of privacy in the digital age. The campaign by the American Library Association gives libraries the tools they need to educate and engage users, and gives citizens the resources to think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy.

Public Libraries in Macon, Jackson, and Swain Counties, as members of Fontana Regional Library, are partnering with the American Library Association to focus attention on privacy issues. The emergence of the modern information society and its increased emphasis on the collection, use, and storage of personal data can pose a threat to privacy.

In an era of social networks, online databases, and cloud computing, more and more individuals’ personal information is now available online and elsewhere. Libraries recognize that privacy is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association—all strongly held American values—and protecting user privacy has long been an integral part of libraries’ work and mission.

The goal of Choose Privacy Week is to raise awareness and provide a forum for libraries to help educate and engage their users—giving individuals the resources they need to think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy.