10.16.09

Campaign for Reader Privacy

Groups representing librarians, booksellers, authors, and publishers, who have been working together for five years to restore the safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the USA Patriot Act, are urging Congress to expand proposed protections for library records to encompass all books, whether borrowed or purchased. Calling draft revisions to the Patriot Act "positive but inadequate," the groups, speaking as the Campaign for Reader Privacy, today called on Congress to address the root causes of public concern about Patriot Act powers that afford the government easy access to information about what people are reading.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is set to expire at the end of the year, allows the FBI to obtain any "tangible thing," including any business records that are "relevant" to an ongoing investigation. In approving legislation extending Section 215 for another four years, the Senate Judiciary Committee last week acknowledged privacy concerns by providing additional protections for library records. A Section 215 order can be used to obtain "library records or patron lists," only when those records pertain directly to someone suspected of terrorism or espionage. However, this added protection would not apply to the records of bookstore customers. They can still be searched even when the customer is not suspected of criminal conduct.

-- via the CRP, 10.15.09.