Another day, another privacy breach reported. It’s almost become a “ho-hum” headline. Pundits decry the lack of security on the part of companies, while individuals do stupid things like post photos of a newly acquired debit card on social media. People care about the privacy of their personal information but don’t always take the steps to secure that information. A friend posted recently that she and her husband had inadvertently left their car unlocked on a city street for hours. The news? Nothing was touched. Sounds almost like a story from The Onion doesn’t it? “Couple leaves vehicle unlocked; Nothing stolen.”

Libraries have been in the forefront of supporting privacy initiatives. Yet even libraries are struggling to come to terms with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Regardless of whether you’re a European citizen or live elsewhere, you were probably inundated with emails from website owners asking you to opt in or re-register in the weeks before GDPR became final (May 25, 2018). Most simply told you that the company’s privacy policy had changed.

GDPR comes on the heels of the Right to Be Forgotten, which gave individuals the right to request information about them, findable via web search engines, be removed. Actually, the data remains, but pointers to it are taken down.

Information professionals tend to be early adopters of technology. We were the first online searchers—yes, before the internet—and we quickly saw the virtues of the open web for information access. The open access (OA) movement for scholarly publications would not exist without the web. Detethering research from desks has been a boon to researchers everywhere. Smartphone proliferation has empowered information access in places where that was impossible previously.

Technology, however, is a two-edged sword. For every Jekyll, there’s a Hyde. We see the benefits of new technology in expanding our horizons, making information available to many more people, allowing divergent views to be heard, and extending the reach of quality information. The dark side is where these technologies are exploited for evil purposes: fake news, falsified research data, websites claiming that lies are truth, and spurious claims abound on the web.

This isn’t new, but it’s getting worse. Just as we were extolling the virtues of email for communication, we started getting spam messages. The spam quickly escalated to phishing and malware. Social media brought connecting with friends to new heights. It also introduced new lows with bot traffic and distortions of the truth. Someone always seems to be there to poison the well.

What responsibilities do information professionals have in supporting Jekyll and exposing Hyde? Calling out malefactors may be soul-satisfying, but research indicates it’s unlikely to change opinions. Still it’s imperative that we continue to speak out, to combat bad information, to educate about evaluating sources, to push for transparency, and to constantly be vigilant. Particularly when it comes to serious research, we need to be data-savvy, ready to call out errors in interpretation, and equipped to challenge assumptions and bias that could affect the validity of results. That’s our responsibility as information professionals and ethical online searchers.