Records privacy vs professors and others

In the past I've considered the privacy of library records primarily in relation to government requests for that information. This is perhaps because the most dramatic examples come from that direction. However, I've recently read/heard about a couple other cases that I think are pretty interesting.

The first: I've recently started volunteering at my local library.  One of the items that came up during the volunteer orientation involved the privacy of library information. How we should given the impression that we neither know nor care about what the patron is reading.

An aside - this was also interesting in that it was reinforced that we shouldn't make positive comments on the patron's selection because it draws attention to the fact we have this knowledge. And perhaps the patron will be led to thinking, "Well, sure they like that I'm reading this, but do I really want them to see that I also want to read that? Better not to check it out."

 As part of the privacy training, one example of records privacy was mentioned - that even family members shouldn't get a pass to see what their wife/son/whatever has checked out. We don't know their personal situation and it's just better for everyone if we don't give out that information as policy, even if the requester says it's for some innocuous purpose like making sure to collect all the books coming due soon from the house.

The other example that struck me was in reading the ALA's Guidelines for Developing a Library Privacy Policy which included a mention of a professor seeking evidence for plagiarism in Section III.

The mere fact that students are enrolled in courses should not jeopardize their privacy rights. Thus, student circulation records for course-required and reserve reading should be protected from inquiry with the same rigor as their circulation records for personal reading. Librarians assisting in investigations of plagiarism should take care to protect the usage records of individual students.

It occurred to me that I would naturally be sympathetic to the professor's plight, whereas I've been somewhat culturally conditioned to be wary of the motives of government agents asking for similar records.

The unifying theme of these two separate examples it the way it's driven home that we need to be wary of going along with someone because their motives seem reasonable to us. Privacy protections mean more than just privacy from the request of government representatives, but also from the requests of others no matter how innocuous they may seem.