Privacy awareness issues in user data collection by digital libraries

Abstract

This work has the objective of investigating privacy aspects in the collection of data by the National Digital Libraries of South America. Country-specific digital libraries were examined using an exploratory research method to identify data these libraries collected both with the user’s awareness and in the explicit presence of privacy policies within their environments. Brazil’s National Digital Library environment was also examined by using the Wireshark tool to identify possible data collected implicitly during user interaction. We identified that only two of the examined digital libraries provide privacy guidance, and in relation to the collection process, the data that are collected without the knowledge of the user stand out more than the data that the user makes available consciously. It is concluded that privacy issues can be influenced by low user awareness of when, how and where data collection takes place, and the availability of privacy policies becomes essential in digital libraries to raise awareness about this process.