Abstract
EDITOR'S SUMMARYAmericans have long valued their freedom of speech and expression, but specific protection of reader privacy is a relatively new concept. Legal threats to reader privacy date to the 1950s with a resurgence of privacy invasion by the IRS and FBI in the 1970s, prompting 48 states to pass legislation extending confidentiality to readers. The PATRIOT Act of 2001 authorized the FBI to gain broad access to bookstore and library records for alleged terrorism investigations. Such information seeking threatens every reader's choice of reading materials where any trace, whether physical or digital, remains. Widespread use of computers to access data reflecting searches, downloads, cookies and other signs of reader habits and interests compounds the threat to personal privacy. Detailed records on electronic reader use stored in the cloud are accessible by authorities. It is crucial to recognize how invasions in the name of security threaten readers' personal privacy.
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