From: S.J. Van Sickle (sjvan@csd.uwm.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 11 2003 - 21:22:19 MST
Amara Graps <amara@amara.com> wrote:
>Libraries might not be the best way of reading books these days,
>anyway, given the current political climate.
>Since the Feds can now snoop into U.S citizen's reading habits,
>I suggest not to use libraries for your reading material. You might
>want to think twice about bookstore purchases too.
According to my librarian wife, the Fed's have *always* been able to snoop
into your reading habits...the threshold is just a little lower, but this
is nothing new.
For this reason, indeed, the vast majority of libraries *do not keep*
historical records. Once you return a book, there is no record of you
ever having had it (a small exception may be rare book collections). They
have done this for a very long time, purely to protect your privacy, since
historical records would be useful in some situations. But American
librarians take intellectual freedom very seriously.
I suppose that The Feds could seize the database hardrive and do forensic
magic on it, but this would not be casual or go unnoticed, and would
essentially shut down the library for a period of time. Not to mention
the sound of librarians screaming bloody murder.
I would trust a library far more than a bookstore, even if you pay cash.
steve
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