Welcome to this week’s Tip of the Hat!
Even if the groundhog in your area didn’t see their shadow yesterday, we in the Northern Hemisphere still have a long winter ahead of us. How will you spend the long winter nights for the next few months? Might we suggest that you stay inside where it’s warm and watch a film? Better yet, make that film about privacy! Here are some privacy film recommendations depending on what you’re looking for:
For library programming about data and privacy – Screening Surveillance [Content warning – suicide, mental health illness] is a grant-funded project to raise awareness around big data and surveillance. The project produced three short films – 10 minutes in length each – approaching specific issues of data sharing, data ownership, and sensor and facial recognition software. These three short films come with facilitation guides that help audiences process and discuss the specific issues raised in each film.
For a succinct introduction into general privacy concepts – Privacy International’s Privacy 101 is a series of short animated videos introducing viewers to the concept of privacy as well as various topics in privacy, including metadata, big data, and data protection. These videos are a good way to acquaint someone with privacy concepts, in short, bite-sized portions. These videos are short enough that you can use these videos in staff training or discussions around privacy, as well as any public programming around data security and privacy.
For when the college instructor gives you the entire class session to teach their class about privacy – The Power of Privacy by The Guardian is a 30 minute documentary about the major challenges to privacy in the digital age. The film provides a balance between the historical “how did we get here?” and the present and near-future realities of data privacy. Library workers have choices in using this film to teach privacy, either by choosing to show segments to focus on specific topics, like phishing or IoT, or show the entire film for a holistic view of the current issues around data privacy.
For the library worker who is trying to navigate student privacy – Student privacy is governed by additional regulations, such as FERPA, which makes protecting student patron privacy more complex in academic and school libraries than in other libraries. The School Safety and Privacy video series from Future of Privacy Forum delve into this complex topic, including approaching the creation of policies, digital equity, facial recognition in schools, and how to talk to administrators and leadership about privacy matters.
BONUS! If you want more videos on student privacy, The Student Privacy Resource Center has a playlist to meet your additional student privacy video needs.
Finally, an artistic philosophical video for your night off – Philosophy Tube’s video on Data [NSFW – language, adult topics] gets into data, surveillance, algorithms, machine learning, structural inequality, targeted advertising, monetization of data, consent, notice, data rights, and how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology (phew!). All of this takes place in a 30-minute discussion-turned-machine-learning-simulation between a bouncer and a person in front of a nightclub.
There are plenty of other videos and films on privacy not covered here, but these recommendations are just a start. If you have a privacy-related film or video that you like, reply to this email and we’ll provide a list of subscriber-recommended videos in a future newsletter.