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Museums enjoy high levels of trust, but
that may mean people also expect them to
maintain higher standards than commercial
companies or the government. Museums need
to determine how to apply the standards of
transparency and accountability which govern
their institutional operations to the collection
and use of personal data, while striving to communicate
more clearly than the average social
media privacy policy.
As artists mine digital data and social media
for content, or deploy their own surveillance
devices, museums need to consider the privacy
concerns of people whose posts, images and
information may have been co-opted without
their permission. The legal issues surrounding
use of online data and images appropriated
from social media are still being worked out,
but even where the legal issues are murky, such
concerns may have ethical standing—presenting
a whole new area of sensitivity for museums
to navigate.
Museums Might Want to…
Review internal policies and procedures about
data collection to ensure that any personal
data they hold is secure and that appropriate
disclosures have been made about what is
being collected and how it will be used.
Consider creating data protection statements
for subscriptions to e-newsletters, online
interactions and apps.
Consider sharing with users the data that the
museum collects about them, in a way that is
useful to them. Recognize that the data people
provide the museum is valuable, and give them
something of value in return.
Consider the privacy concerns of employees
and staff. HR staff are increasingly using
Internet searches to vet prospective employees.
In making policies about what is, and is
not, fair game, museums should consider
whether such New Age background checks
disadvantage candidates who are not savvy
about tidying their digital footprints, which
might further narrow the diversity of museums’
already homogenous applicant pool. Insider
theft is a significant source of risk to museums,
and reasonable monitoring of staff is prudent—
but what constitutes reasonable? Museum
policies about background checks, hiring and
monitoring of staff’s physical and online activities
need to adapt to these new realities, while
keeping pace with employees’ expectations
and concerns.
Devote time, in their organizational planning, to
envisioning the future of surveillance technology
and privacy concerns five or 10 years from
now, and factor this into their decision making.
This will help create a technological, physical
and policy infrastructure that can adapt to the
rapid changes in these fields.
Further Reading
In November 2013, the National Museum of American
History presented a day-long symposium on
“Inventing the Surveillance Society.” Content is available
via the archived webcast, blog posts, podcast (with
designer Adam Harvey) and Storify.
Dave Eggers, The Circle (Knopf, 2013). In this work
of dystopian futurist fiction, Eggers explores the
total control exerted by a giant tech company over
its employees and society as a whole. In an economy
based on strip mining personal data, the Circle’s motto
is “Privacy is theft, Secrets are lies.”
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