Privacy Policy
Policy
The project's position is to let the historical documents stand as found to the greatest
degree possible. Simultaneously, it has been sensitive to concerns that some of the
information in the collected documents may contain traumatic details or reveal private
details. In collaboration with the Community Council, we identified the kinds of information
to identify as sensitive, such as current personal details, medical records, and accounts
of potentially criminal behaviour. We also identified language use that would currently
be considered offensive. Finally, we created a matrix which our data preparers used
to identify records as sensitive and the degree of sensitive material.
Our objective is to balance fairly the desire for researchers and the public to have
details of these events with the honour of participants and legal obligations.
In the archival collection, for records containing relatively minor sensitivity issues
the abstract or summary includes a warning, so that users are informed before reading
through the entire document. For the very small number of archival records with substantial
sensitivity issues, we have not provided the full document, but only the abstract
and a notification that the full document can be obtained from the source repository
on request.
In the oral histories, for records containing relatively minor sensitivity issues,
the summary or abstract includes a warning, so that users are informed before reading
or listening to the oral history. In cases where the conversation includes content
which is substantially sensitive, that portion of the audio has been replaced by silence
and the transcript is replaced by a grey box with a note indicating the length of
the redaction. The redacted sections are typically less than a minute and in any oral
history in which they appear add up to only a small fraction of the document.
Sensitivity Matrix
With consultation from the community and the research collective at the 2019 LOI Spring
Institute, and with continuing advice from the Community Council, the digital archive
team developed this sensitivity matrix with a weighted scale for the different types
of sensitivities identified. Research Assistant Gord Lyall presented the matrix design,
as well as the digital archive project, at a 2019 American Studies Association panel
on the ethics of digital archives called
“Building Digital Archives as We Fight”. The audience received the concept very positively and some panelists acknowledged the value of a similar framework for their own projects. After more refinement and some back and forth, based on CC recommendations, and ultimately decided in a meeting with the CC and the Steering Committee, the project agreed to make all material, with the exception of some mental health records which are restricted under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act of BC, available to the public with a warning label to the visitor giving details on the kind(s) of sensitivities they may encounter as outlined in the matrix below.
Term | Gloss | Severity |
---|---|---|
Illness label | Details or graphic images of serious illness (mental or physical) or mortality of identifiable individual(s). | 4 |
Youth label | Details of serious anti-social activity or illness of youth under age of 18. | 3 |
Implicate label | Defaming or implicating identifiable individual(s) who were not part of document creation. | 2 |
Criminal label | Details of potentially serious or violent criminal activity, especially violence. | 2 |
Stereotype label | Egregious stereotyping (positive or negative) of a culture, group or person (beyond outdated language), especially vulnerable individual(s)/group(s). | 1 |
Cultural label | Could be considered private by community for cultural reasons. | 1 |
Dishonour label | Could cause undue or disproportionate dishonour / embarrassment to self or family. | 1 |
Details label | Current personal identifying details (such as contact info). | 4 |
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Title
Privacy Policy
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Born Digital.
Terminology
Readers of these historical materials will encounter derogatory references to Japanese
Canadians and euphemisms used to obscure the intent and impacts of the internment
and dispossession. While these are important realities of the history, the Landscapes
of Injustice Research Collective urges users to carefully consider their own terminological
choices in writing and speaking about this topic today as we confront past injustice.
See our statement on terminology, and related sources here.