Privacy Double Standards: Patron data versus employee data

I interviewed an Assistant Professor of Library Sciences and Web Resources Librarian of 1.5 years about ethics in librarianship. Some of the issues she mentioned were censorship of library computers, and intrusion on library employees’ personal lives, which seemed to be “demanding employees be available nearly 24/7 because of smart phones/social media.” This concern about respecting privacy had a lot to do with a personal situation that she recently faced that she felt was ethically “gray.” She shared with me that “a former coworker” used her patron record at her previous employer library and “looked up my personal cell phone number […] and called me on it, citing a desperate need to talk to me.” She at first assumed there was indeed an important problem at hand, “but she was actually trying to set me up on a date with her son.” This brought to the forefront her concerns about respecting the privacy of ALL library users, not just “regular” patrons. She said “If I had never worked there and was just a patron, she would never have dreamed of violating my privacy like that.” She regrets not handling the situation better at the time, saying that “in retrospect I should have reported her to her manager and the director of the system. Not only did she use library information for personal gain, but she used information she heard by eavesdropping to cajole me into going on a date that I didn’t want to go on.  So many boundaries were crossed.”

               

I would like to think that people know better than that, but clearly not. Her story reminded me of similar experiences and anecdotes that I had forgotten, from my days working in retail, when coworkers crossed lines in giving out other coworkers’ personal phone numbers to customers. That separation in customer service, the line that maintains a professional distance between customer service interactions and personal interactions, is absolutely sacred and not to be crossed. Whenever I hear stories about that element of work/life balance being violated, it is similar to feeling a Star Wars-esque “disturbance in the Force.” To me, that is not just ethically gray at all, it is a blatant crossing of boundaries. However, every situation has nuance, and I have to remember to see both sides of a conundrum. To the person who looked up her phone number to set up a date with her son, the importance of that happening, in her mind, was worth the risk of seeming intrusive and misusing information. I may not agree with that level of import, and neither does my interviewee, but in trying to understand how people make the decisions they do about how they use information, perhaps we can learn what gaps in knowledge need to be filled with ethical training and programs.