A story about the privacy of reading lists:
The Village Voice: Nation: by Nat Hentoff: Big John Wants Your Reading List ....the FBI , armed with a warrant or subpoena from the FISA court, can demand from bookstores and libraries the names of books bought or borrowed by anyone suspected of involvement in "international terrorism" or "clandestine activities." I found the Village Voice link on The Shifted Librarian. [ Privacy Digest Weblog]
Privacy Digest picked up on this story by way of Jenny, the Shifted Librarian, who upholds (as she should) the sanctity of library patrons' reading lists.
Earlier today, I was helping the self-same Shifted Librarian figure out how to reveal her own reading list on her weblog. (Did you get it working, Jenny?)
This might seem contradictory, but I don't see it that way. It would be wrong to force us to reveal our sources. But we may still choose to do so.
Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2002/03/05.html#a107