Protection against data tracking by scientific publishers
Some publishers and providers track the research behavior of users, create profiles and evaluate this information for their own purposes without the consent of the persons concerned (data tracking).
The authentication technologies used by the University Library for licensed media do not share personally identifiable information with publishers. Normally access control takes place via the university's IP address space. The authentication procedure used by the University Library for access from outside uses a proxy procedure in which only the IP address of the University Library's proxy server is visible to the provider, but not the IP address of the provider's own device. The same applies to a VPN connection; here, too, only the IP address provided by the VPN server is visible.
As a further method of authentication, the University of Würzburg uses the Shibboleth login service (WueLogin). Here you can check for yourself which data is transmitted to the provider. In most cases, this data does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about individuals.
However, some databases require the creation of a personal account.
Independent of our authentication procedures, many publishers offer personal accounts, e.g. to store reading preferences and research history.
We recommend that you avoid using these features if possible, set privacy preferences, and carefully read the privacy statements of the providers. In general, most academic information licensed by the University Library can be accessed without personal accounts with the publishers.
To protect against traditional website data tracking technologies, we recommend that you use appropriate features in your browser (e.g. Firefox Enhanced Tracking Protection) and follow the tips provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
