2. New technologies often pose new ethical challenges. Recently many librarians have adopted the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in their collections in order to deter theft, track materials, and check out books faster.

However, because the tags collect personally identifiable information there have been concerns raised that because this technology provides the means to monitor the reading habits of individuals, it may compromise free speech, as free speech depends on a right to read with relative anonymity. Concerns have also been expressed around the potential for inferences to be made about a patron’s lifestyle, sexual orientation, politics, etc., based on their reading habits. Although librarians were able to track reading patterns before, the RFID tags have the potential to be more invasive, intrusive, and pervasive, while being less visible, and they also offer greater detail and granularity of data.42 RFID is just one example of a technology that has the potential to be used in an unethical manner in a library. If you were a library manager considering implementing RFID technology in your library, what steps would you want to take to ensure that the technology was used in an ethical manner?