the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, Why is the Ridgewood Library using an unsecured gmail account (rgwdteens@gmail.com) in connection with registration for teen/youth programs? And why is the Library asking for very personal information to register for selected teen/youth programs?
Data being requested for program registration includes name of participant, home address, home phone number, email address, birth date (DOB), place of birth, other places of residence, grade in school, name of school, hobbies & interests, and more.
Who has access to this email account, who has access to the senders’ data input, and how is the collected information being secured by the Library? Why isn’t an email address associated with a secure government maintained server/domain name being used?
Finally, wouldn’t all submitted data (e.g., your child’s DOB, hobbies & interests), be available to anyone (yes, anyone) via an Open Public Records Request since it’s being collected by a governmental agency?
The Library is completely out of control. Nancy Greene operates with no fear of being reprimanded. What a joke. Nothing that happens there would surprise me.
Ms. Winograd and the other hyper sensitive parents concerned about their children’s safety should get on this.
I know the library operators live in LaLa land–circular staircase?–but how could they possibly consider asking all these private (if they were seeking a new employee most of these questions would be illegal to ask!) items are necessary? It is a total invasion of privacy and way too much to be asked. Do they have a private vendor taking these from them when they are collected? Being paid to collect is really a nasty trick, but then why are they doing it? There has to be an untold reason!
A lawsuit in the making, that’s for sure.
“…operating without fear of being reprimanded” is our entire serving Village; manager, employees, Slimgineer, commitee members and Village Council. Everyone is padding each other’s self interests.
Oh man, this is hilarious! Greene has to GO
Access to this database would be a child predator’s dream come true. Police department should step in now and seize the database. Privacy laws may have been violated.
Was the library selling this data to a private company or providing it for free to members of the library board of friends of the library board?
UPDATE: It appears as though the Library has just (today, 6/19) removed all references to the rgwdteens@gmail account from their website, and also removed the hyperlink to an on line questionnaire for volunteer positions in which personal identifying information was being solicited.
However, there is no statement posted as to the status of any personal identifying information that may have been previously collected via the hyperlink and/or messages from applicants stored within gmail.
This is OUTRAGEOUS. They are collecting all this information from children? WHO is collecting it? What are they doing with it? Can the general public see this information? Can it be OPRA’ed? I cannot effing believe that the library is doing this. A GMAIL account is collecting all this, not a library email account. So who, might we ask, is the human being that set up the gmail account and has the password to get into it? Can you say LAWSUIT??? Shaking my head in disbelief here.
A bunch of trolls with nothing better to do than post their conspiracy nonsense what information could possibly be collected that isn’t alredy out there. Get a life trolls go to a village meeting and speak your mind not behind a keyboard
Jumping to conclusions before any facts are presented… Typical…
This is what keeps you up all night? Get a clue. Worry about something that actually matters. This information is all out there alredy whether the public library collects it or not and if you dont think it is, you’re fooling yoursef
Well after they were made FOOLS of then they take the email down. They better send notifications to the parents of ALL the children who provided personal information. This is just horrible.
Breathe in a bag. For those of you that have children in town sports, you’ve regularly submitted copies of Birth Certificates and Health Forms to volunteer coaches who place them in a folder and keep them in their cars, their house, and even the sidelines. Does that pass your data security sniff test? Over the years, you sent family information to personal email addresses of class parents so they can add your child to the school directory. It includes your email addresses, your address, name of siblings in the school, etc. And then, published and distributed widely… only to be sent to the recycling bin after the school year. And finally, your relentless facebook, instagram, twitter posts of your children. If anyone really wants information on your child, the most likely and best source of info unwittingly comes from YOU.
Hmm. Looks like Nancy Greene must have sent an email requesting her peeps to post supportive comments here. Hmm.
“This information is all out there alredy whether the public library collects it or not and if you dont think it is, you’re fooling yoursef”
Huh? Date of birth, place of birth, email address, phone number, home address, previous addresses, hobbies & interests, name of school, grade in school. This is what was being collected. So you can sit there with a straight face and tell me that all of this information is available on line for any teen/youth who resides in Ridgewood? You’re a liar, plain and simple.