How much does Amazon know about my books?

[FF2]

New to Kindle3.

I understand that Amazon tracks things I do on my Kindle3 - something I had not really thought about.

What kinds of stuff do they track? My reading speed (will they determine I'm dyslectic? I'm not.)?

Do they know each and every book or pdf I place on the device? Will they know/suspect that I have a Garmin Dakota gps because I've placed the pdf on the Kindle3? Or any other product for which I install the pdf?

What about word documents? Can they read them or just the titles?

Do they know the music I've installed? Or the pictures?

Or do they only track the books I've purchased from them?

Thanks for any info (and I apologize if this is covered someone on the board)

[desertgrandma]

Welcome to MobileRead, FF2

[flandroid]

The other day someone from Amazon called and was like, 'How was that macaroni you had for dinner, flandroid? And may I say that's a lovely shirt you're wearing?' It was chilling.

Honestly though, there are a lot of Kindles out there, I can't imagine it would be worth their time to really care what's on yours.

[el_brio]

Rather than simply pump-up my post count by posting a non-response, I thought I would take a crack at actually answering your question.

I wouldn't put it past Amazon to collect data on what is loaded onto consumers devices. I would guess that the extent of what is collected would probably be limited to book metadata. IF they are doing this, it would most likely for marketing research. Once collected though, who knows whose hands the information may fall into. I think that they could probably care less about .jpgs and .mp3s. As a rule of thumb though, I would never put anything onto your Kindle that you wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with parties unknown.

I'll also venture a guess that your question could be rephrased as, "If I put pirated material on my Kindle will Amazon find out?" I think that maybe is the best way to answer this question. What they might do with such information is another matter. I doubt that they would actively start a witch-hunt against people with pirated content, but if the information is collected, it could always be subpoenaed in a court case.

Practically speaking, pirated material is probably difficult to discern from legitimate material (let alone track) so I wouldn't worry about it too much; however, your best bet is to probably avoid it. People deserve to get paid for their work. Getting paid multiple times for the same book, however, is a whole different issue that I won't rehash here.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by flandroid

The other day someone from Amazon called and was like, 'How was that macaroni you had for dinner, flandroid? And may I say that's a lovely shirt you're wearing?' It was chilling.

Honestly though, there are a lot of Kindles out there, I can't imagine it would be worth their time to really care what's on yours.

Least you got asked, my call involved them mentioning how displeased they were with me eating my tea on the couch in front of the TV and not at the table with the Kindle.

To the OP, I doubt they really care. Amazon care about what they have sold you and adhering to their agreements with their suppliers/publishers (ie: not selling geographic restricted ebooks to non-authorised countries). At worst if anything that *could* take a list of ebook files on my reader, but as many know, the file name doesn't always match the content. I highly doubt they'd copy all your data to them given (a) the number of Kindles there'd be too much data, (b) someone would have noticed excessive usage, (c) it has been point out on the net multiple times the info Amazon send back to them, and (d) would Amazon really care if you had copyright infringed work on your Kindle? provided they didn't sell it to you they have no interest in it.

From memory Amazon collect (and this is for ebooks purchased through Amazon) the ebook you are reading, your current page (I honestly forget the rest but this information is used for syncing your reading across multiple devices).

[speakingtohe]

And of course if you are worried you could always change the metadata so that is it is still recognizable to you when on the device but Amazon whould have no standardized way of compiling it if they so desired.

Calibre plugboards let you alter the metadata sent to the device without affecting your original file.

Removing isbn, changing/abbreviating title/author would make it hard to tell if the book is a personal document or not. Collecting information on personal documents is probably not a legal right of Amazon's.

Not trying to condone piracy here but information collecting or data mining by any organisation is a bit to 1984 for me.

Helen

[FF2]

Thanks for the various replies and points of view. As for collecting that much data - GoogleMapping seems to have, ahem, "inadvertently" snooped on wifi as they were taking pictures (how does one accidentally grab wifi data while photographing neighborhoods?) so I'm sure Amazon has as much capacity as google.

I'm one of those who is not much into grocery affinity cards and my pictures are not generally x-rated nor my reading tastes but it is still something I wonder about.

I guess I get use to it or send the unit back. (.... slowly, I slip down that slope...)

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by FF2

Thanks for the various replies and points of view. As for collecting that much data - GoogleMapping seems to have, ahem, "inadvertently" snooped on wifi as they were taking pictures (how does one accidentally grab wifi data while photographing neighborhoods?) so I'm sure Amazon has as much capacity as google.

I could be wrong, but I think Google was looking for free wifi spots to include on their maps - legit ones, that is. They didn't take into account the large numbers of people who don't secure their wifi (*wince*) and THEN get paranoid about google 'snooping'.

<mini-rant>Guess what - your neighbours might just be downloading porn via YOUR wifi, if it's unsecured. Thought your neighbour was a drug dealer because of all the cars pulling up outside? Nah, they just needed to do some internet banking via your wifi. Or worse, nick your internet banking ID and password.</mini-rant>

Originally Posted by FF2

I'm one of those who is not much into grocery affinity cards and my pictures are not generally x-rated nor my reading tastes but it is still something I wonder about.

I guess I get use to it or send the unit back. (.... slowly, I slip down that slope...)

Anything you buy from Amazon, Amazon can know about pretty easily. Chances are, anything you put on your kindle is largely invisible to Amazon unless they specifically connect to it to fix a problem. Otherwise the kindle would need to be sending data back to Amazon every time it's connected to the internet, and it's highly likely that some techie would've noticed and started screaming blue murder about it.

[zoran]

The very idea is scary. I assume they need data to crunch big
numbers and get market trends. But nobody could stop indivi-
dual from taking particular user as instance and look at his day
behavior. Hidden licenses are not part of buy-sell contract to
my kind of living. "We don't have your data but we might make
some experiment with those we don't have and might post it
as part of our..." Having firewall with dynamic rules is not a way
to stop inward traffic, since the process starts the session to
post and listen. To stay private, one could disconnect cable mo-
dem, run wireless network, do what he/she wants and make it
reverse. The question is: why?

[JeremyR]

While I suppose you might think the OP is a bit paranoid, sometimes companies do this (datamining).

A dating site I've used reads people's emails and then figures out various conclusions based on the things in the email (like certain phrases or subjects that improve your chances of getting a response). If a dating site would do that (apparently just for fun, they post the results on the blog) why wouldn't a company whose main business revolves around books try to figure out what people are reading?

Not to send the FBI after you, but perhaps see what people really read, rather than say they read.

Heck, a lot of people even do this sort of thing voluntarily with things like Last FM.

[DixieGal]

Assume that everything on there is accessible by Amazon, then you will not be surprised. Remember the horrified users last year who were so stunned when Amazon came in overnight and deleted certain books from millions of devices.

The best advice seemed to be either to turn off the wifi or just to assume everything on there is viewable to them.

I am a bit more concerned that they have my debit card number and ask no security questions when I buyKindle books. Just click and it shoots the book to my iPad.

[DixieGal]

Assume that everything on there is accessible by Amazon, then you will not be surprised. Remember the horrified users last year who were so stunned when Amazon came in overnight and deleted certain books from millions of devices.

The best advice seemed to be either to turn off the wifi or just to assume everything on there is viewable to them.

I am a bit more concerned that they have my debit card number and ask no security questions when I buyKindle books. Just click and it shoots the book to my iPad.

[Josieb1]

I think if you buy a book from Amazon or elsewhere, and I have books from Fictionwise on my Kindle, then you need to realise that Amazon knows what you have on your Kindle by the book metadata, when I load books from other sites via Calibre I don't change any metadata as it doesn't bother me.

On the other hand I have 100's of PDF's and converted RTF documents on my Kindle which are fan fiction, so (as far as I know) they have no proper metadata so all Amazon could know is I have 100's of personal documents on my Kindle loaded via my pc.

I have nearly 900 items on my Kindle now, and only 200 are proper books, and less than 100 came from Amazon

[zoran]

What if I want movie with nude wives, girlfriends of amazon employees?
And to share with this forum? Take a closer look at the small print at the
paper on back of my closet, where it might be found.
Seriously, some people take for granted whatever they dream.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by FF2

I understand that Amazon tracks things I do on my Kindle3 - something I had not really thought about.

What kinds of stuff do they track? My reading speed (will they determine I'm dyslectic? I'm not.)?

Do they know each and every book or pdf I place on the device? Will they know/suspect that I have a Garmin Dakota gps because I've placed the pdf on the Kindle3? Or any other product for which I install the pdf?

What about word documents? Can they read them or just the titles?

Do they know the music I've installed? Or the pictures?

Or do they only track the books I've purchased from them?

Have a look at their official statement here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200506200

Kindle (Latest Generation) License Agreement and Terms of Use states:
Information Received. The Software will provide Amazon with data about your Kindle and its interaction with the Service (such as available memory, up-time, log files, and signal strength). The Software will also provide Amazon with information related to the Digital Content on your Kindle and Other Devices and your use of it (such as last page read and content archiving). Annotations, bookmarks, notes, highlights, or similar markings you make using your Kindle or Reading Application and other information you provide may be stored on servers that are located outside the country in which you live. Any information we receive is subject to the Amazon.com privacy notice located at http://www.amazon.com/privacy.

Yes, they can see anything you put on your Kindle.
They can even delete stuff, and they do delete stuff. No I am not talking about that 1984 book, I am talking about the periodicals they regularly delete from your Kindle, so it doesn't eat up entire memory.
They can also push firmware update to your Kindle, so if there is something they are not able to do with current firmware, it might change without further notice.

On the other hand, if somebody caught Amazon reporting that they have a book on their Kindle that MIGHT be infringing, there would be *huge* backslash. Public relations nightmare of the highest magnitude imaginable. Do not forget how much USA citizens love to litigate with rich corporations.