Talking About Privacy

It must be noted that organizational culture plays a big role in your ability to have privacy discussions. Where you are within your organization and its culture will greatly impact your ability to start or continue privacy conversations. If the culture does not allow for front-line staff or lower management to have much say in operational matters, there may be other ways to have influence. Perhaps you can identify and engage with potential allies who have more status in the organization and share similar perspectives as you.

While this guide mostly focuses on how to start privacy conversations, remember continuing the conversation and building relationships is important, especially if you’re hoping for long-term and sustainable privacy practices. You’re looking for commonalities and ways to build a relationship that will keep these conversations going into the future. Finding ways to communicate the importance of privacy and why libraries should care is a critical way to make needed changes, leading to safer environments for library users, library staff, and our communities.