Stop PW from sending info to Amazon.

[rascalina]

I buy books from multiple sources, and use Calibre to keep it all organized. Occasionally I see a book on amazon that I want (freebies etc) and I want my kindle PW to be able to get them. Right now I am keeping it in Airplane mode. Is there a way to stop the PW sending information to AMAZON or am I just being paranoid ?

PS. I share my amazon account with some family, so I don't want them seeing what I read or any other suggestions, amazon's helpful little site would share.

Please

[Mike L]

Given that you are using Calibre, that indicates that you are storing the books on a PC. In that case, you can use Calibre to transfer the books from the PC to the Kindle. So you never need to switch on wi-fi on the Kindle, which means Amazon have no way of knowing what books are on the device.

That said, I wonder if it really matters. Why would anyone at Amazon care what you (among several million Kindle owners) are reading? And what does it matter if they do?

Mike

[Mike L]

But that doesn't answer your other question: how to stop other family members seeing what you are reading.

Given that you are sharing your Amazon account with them, there is nothing to stop them logging into the account, and then visiting the Manage My Kindle page, where they can see all the books you have purchased from Amazon. I can't think of any way of preventing that. If you don't want that to happen, you should set up your own private account and use that to purchase your books.

Mike

[DustyDisks]

As Mike L said it is easy, just do not turn the radios on. Because if you do your kindle will call home and report every time you do.

[patrickt]

I don't think you're being paranoid. You seem to have a reason to be concerned about others knowing what you're reading.

[xendula]

In Your Media Library, you could try to move your books into the trash can. They will disappear from list view, but are unfortunately still searchable, as the trashcan cannot be emptied. Very infuriating, actually!
I have been meaning to call amazon and ask if they can empty out my trashcan (there are 300 French classics in there that I downloaded for an aunt - ugh!), so you could try that, and, if they can't do that, try to create a separate account for yourself, at least for the books you don't want to advertise to your family, and use Calibre to add them to your library.

In geneal, if amazon finds out that one has more than one account, they may close them all out, so it is a bit tricky. Maybe if you call them, they have a different solution.

To me, the easiest would be to just let people delete their content for good if they so wish.

What I do not know is if the reading suggestions carry over between devices, which seems to also be your concern: say you use your mobile phone to browse and purchase fantasy ebooks - would someone sharing your account see fantasy titles suggested when they browse amazon from their PC? Or are the suggestions driven by local cookies, in which case even two separate accounts would share the same suggestions if you use the same device to browse their store.

In any of these cases, after completing your purchases, simply by browsing a category that is approved by, say, your grandmother, will help, since you'll end up with reading suggestions for other cook books or knitting books, or whatever else she may approve.

One more thing to take into account is: If you signed up to receive email suggestions: amazon knows what I read and periodically tells me that, because I bought book xyz, I may be interested in those similar books. Does someone other than you see these mails?

My reading was heavily monitored when I was a kid (no YA or children's books allowed, once I was in 5th or 6th grade), so I can totally relate to why someone would want freedom to read whatever they please. In my day, I had to hide the books of my choice in my library backpack underneath the approved titles.