On Aug 15, 2014 5:52 PM, "Karen Coyle" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> On 8/15/14, 12:07 PM, Eric Hellman wrote:
>>
>> AddThis and ShareThis, on the other hand have TOS that let them use
tracking for advertising, and that's what their business is. So,
hypothetically, a teen could look at library catalog records for books
about childbirth, and as a result, later be shown ads for pregnancy tests,
and that would be something the library has permitted.
>
>
> Eric, I'm wondering about the full scenario that you are envisioning.
Many libraries use proxy servers, so individual users are not identified.
(Meaning that an 80-yr-old man may get the ad for the pregnancy test, not
the teen.)

You're right, using the public access machines inside a library would be
relatively free from being able to track an individual, particularly if
they are purely anonymous sessions (such as a dedicated catalogue kiosk).

I think the primary concern rises from users accessing the catalogue from
their own machine / browser, where services can easily and reliably
correlate web usage behavior of an individual over time across many web
properties.