Privacy of Users and Co-Reader Analyses

Libraries generate mines of data regarding use of and user-interactions with libraries. But under the general understanding of upholding customer privacy, such data is not subjected to complete processing and analysis. Protecting customers personal information is not just a courtesy, but a legal obligation too. The law is stringent in the West and more so in Europe and now the same is enacted in India also.. In order to provide personalized services, libraries and publishers do need personal information of customers. A clear "privacy policy‟ spelling out what information is collected, how it is used, how user can change it, with whom it is shared and how customers can opt out of it are necessary. Due to anonymity of transactions, many interesting social relations networks arising out of such data are not identified and results extracted. These social networks have rich potential for value added services in libraries. It is high time libraries reconsider continuing protection of customer privacy relating to their transactions like what they search, suggest/ indent, borrow/read, reserve, copy/download, etc. Anonymity and privacy are almost lost on internet due to crawlers, history stealing web sites and mushrooming of "like" buttons. Interestingly, if people know that they are being watched, their search habits are likely to change. Keeping the debate on need for anonymity and privacy issues aside, there are many positive benefits to users of libraries from the processing and analysis of transactions with libraries together with information about users‟.