Privacy & Surveillance
ALA’s extensive First Amendment and privacy principles guide the association’s work in the federal legislative and policy arenas as well as at the state and local levels in order to protect personal privacy based upon a long standing commitment to patron privacy. Advancing the library community’s principles to protect patron confidentiality requires major grassroots work from the library community to promote library priorities in these environments. There are several parts of ALA that work on these important issues.
Office for Intellectual Freedom
In conjunction with the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) conducts the associations work on intellectual freedom and privacy issues at the state and local levels, often working also with state library association chapters. OIF also takes the lead on most ALA litigation on these issues.
Office of Government Relations
At the federal level, ALA’s Committee on Legislation (COL) works with the Office of Government Relations (OGR). The federal debates often focus on provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Electronic Computer Privacy Act (ECPA), the Computer Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and other surveillance and data retention proposals.
Federal Legislation
- The Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) of 2011
- The USA PATRIOT Act
- Take action: Legislative Action Center
