Digital Privacy

The Edmonton Public Library is committed to the confidentiality of customer use of its facilities, services, collections and website.

What is Digital Privacy?

Digital privacy refers to the protection of an individual's information that is used or created while using the Internet on a computer or personal device.

Confidentiality of all information and data collected by the Edmonton Public Library is at the core of our values. EPL is committed to protecting your privacy. This section of our website was designed to inform our customers about their online experience while using our website and resources.

EPL is committed to the protection of your personal information while keeping in line with applicable legislation including:

Access to Personal Information

The Edmonton Public Library cares about your personal information. Any user with a Library card and password can access and change their online profile information on epl.ca.

More Information

For a detailed breakdown of all the information EPL collects, why we collect it, and who has access check out our Personal Information Banks page.

If you wish to access or amend any personal information that is not on your My EPL Account profile you can request these changes through our Request Access to Records form.

If you have any questions about the Edmonton Public Library and your Digital Privacy, please contact us.

Logging Practices & Cookies

Logging practices refer to the use of web-delivered software that collects customer data to analyze how a customer interacts with and uses a website. Logging practices are sometimes referred to as web analytics. Web analytics software is a tool that helps to describe, predict, and improve performance of the library website and device applications. Data that is collected can include pages that are visited on a website and the types of searches that are made by a user. All data collected is combined together so that it cannot be reasonably linked to any one user. Logging practices can help a library learn what parts of its website are the most (or least) popular and work to create the best service for its customers. This data is used to create reports to help improve a website’s navigation, content and services.

Logging Practices at EPL

At the Edmonton Public Library, we analyze logging practices using Google Analytics and Crazy Egg Analytics for our website, and Google Play Dashboard and Apple App Analytics for our Android and iOS apps, respectively. We collect IP addresses from all visitors to our websites. An IP address is a number that identifies a specific computer or other network device on the internet. Other information we collect includes location, web browser or electronic device used, date and time, pages viewed on our website and searches done on our website. All data collected is anonymous and aggregated. We use this data to better understand how our customers use our websites and app in order to help us create the best online EPL experience.

Cookies

The Edmonton Public Library uses cookies so we can recognize website visitors, keep track of their preferences and improve their experience on our website. Anyone has the option to disable cookies.

You should be aware that the information collected about you may be separated from any personally identifiable information and compiled with information collected about other users and visitors. This information cannot be used to reasonably identify you. It does help EPL to administer our services, analyze usage of our site, provide security for our customers and identify new users. Cookies are also used to improve your experience on our site.

Online Resources

Digital Privacy Awareness and You

The Edmonton Public Library subscribes to a diverse list of online resources to bring the best content to your computer or device. These online resources can also be referred to as third-party resources and they are governed by their own privacy policies and terms of reference.

In the course of your visit to our website and online catalogue you may follow links to third-party sites. These sites have their own privacy policies and terms of reference. We ask that you check all third-party resources’ privacy information before you agree to use their services.

When you first log into a resource, we provide information that verifies you are a valid library account holder with our third-party online resources.

Your Information and Online Resources

When you agree to use our online resources, your library account information is sent to that resource’s vendor to tell them that you are allowed to access that resource. This information typically includes your library card barcode and that you are a resident of Edmonton with permission to access this resource. It does not include your borrowing history.

There are some online resources that collect more information to authenticate that you are a resident of Edmonton and an EPL cardholder in good standing. EPL shares additional information about your account with these vendors.

For your information, we have created a list of the online resources that collect information beyond your library barcode, residential info and card status to authenticate you.

Online Resources and Additional Information Shared

EPL needs to share additional information with the following vendors to authenticate you into their web pages and apps.

The additional information shared with these resources does not include your borrowing history. The additional information shared includes: name, home address, email address, amount of overdue items, number of checked out items, number of items on hold, amount of fees owed, number of checkouts that are not renewable because of holds, home branch, card type (including whether you are an Edmonton resident), whether you are a member in good standing (customer status with EPL), birthday, gender, educational institution and whether you allow EPL to contact you via email.

Creation of Secondary Accounts

Some of our online resources require you to create a secondary personal account to access and use that resource (e.g. hoopla, Kanopy and Freading). Other online resources offer an optional secondary personal account (e.g. Mango Language Learning).

When you create a personal account, you are sharing information such as your account username, email address, borrowing preferences and password directly with the online resource. The Edmonton Public Library does not collect and protect information for personal accounts created through our online resources.

Any of our online resources that are not found on these lists only require you to have an EPL card in good standing, indicating you live in Edmonton, to use their services.

Please remember that all our third-party online resources are governed by their own privacy policies and terms of reference. We advise all our customers to consult each resource’s policies and terms before agreeing to use their services. You can find this information on our A-Z Online Resources list.

Resources with Mandatory Secondary Accounts

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