Google-Watchers - want privacy guarantees before handing over library books for Google digitization

Google Watch is asking libraries to lean on Google regarding its privacy policies, as part of the Google/Library Digitization massive scanning project:

It is my feeling that those librarians who contract with Google for access to their books and documents for purposes of digitization should require that any future searches done on Google that produce this material, must respect the anonymity of the searcher. This would mean that Google cannot record the IP address or unique ID from the cookie for such searches. Short of this, another alternative would be for libraries to deny Google access to any literature that has political content or relevance.                [Emphasis is mine - Mary]

Letter to Mitch Freedman, Past President of ALA from Daniel Brandt

Comments

[Doug Thacker]

That should be, a list of the books you read *keyed to your other data*, all of it personally identifiable.

[Doug Thacker]

Clearly the concern here is who is doing what with the data. And who will do something with it in the future. If you look even cursorily at what Google is doing over all, and not just with libraries, the implications become alarming. Having Google keep in its database a list of the books you read is probably not a good thing.

I agree. That description could fit nearly anything in the right context.

[Gary McGath]

Selectively removing "any literature that has political content or relevance" from the collections to be digitized would be a cure far worse than the disease. For starters, who would decide which books have "political content or relevance"?