I remember when it first became widely known that the government could see your library checkouts. People protested. It was a big deal in my tiny town.

I don't even think it would be even a blip on the radar now.

It really is depressing how much ground we've given.

I was just talking about this the other day. This all happened right after 9/11(nevr 4get) and people were fucking PISSED that the patriot act wanted to look at people's library histories. It was a HUGE deal where I lived. Now? Nobody gives a shit and people will trade away their valuable privacy for an IQ test.

Can you clarify what you mean?

My local library is run by the county government, so of course the government can see the checkouts, they are the ones I check the book out from. But they restrict checkout information from others. For example, a parent can see the checkouts of their own children, but not after they turn 13.

Perhaps you're talking about subpoenas? Checking some other libraries I see SF Public Library has some discussion about that, but they delete books from your checkout history once they are returned. https://sfpl.org/about-us/confidentiality-and-usa-patriot-ac...

USA PATRIOT Act, early 2000s?