Does Amazon Spy on Users?

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Nobody really knows. The logs that the various devices accrue are full of lots of info about the books you're reading, the cell towers you were connected to while reading (if you have 3g of course), DRM status, and more. But the encrypted "phone home" packets that have been captured and sniffed over the years have been of a size that most have agreed aren't really large enough to transmit that data (even in pieces). They're basically keep-alive-ping sized. It's more likely that the logs are available to CS personnel when they obtain permission to "access" your device for trouble-shooting purposes.

I'm not trying to give them a free pass or anything, there's stuff being logged that could certainly be contrued as privacy-violating in nature. It's just that while I have no trouble believing they have the technological capability to gather the data they're logging, I've seen no evidence that it's actually being done. Make of it what you will.

This doesn't guarantee anything, but when the PW1 was first released I reported the bug where the light didn't turn off sometimes. One of their developers called me directly to ask some questions and ask for permission to pull the logs from the device. I gave him permission, and he did so. It didn't require any interaction on my part, so they definitely have the ability to pull them, but he did explicitly ask for my permission first, so it appears that at the very least they don't do it as a matter of course.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Katie1

Who Cares I don't Spy away! But if they do they do a poor job with the Recomedations they send to me )

What?! The recommendations they send me are spot on, and related to something I either bought or have in my cart (my cart is always full).

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by xendula

What?! The recommendations they send me are spot on.

The ones I get are so useless, it's laughable. For example, I bought a non-fiction book about the battle of Bannockburn, so Edward II and Robert the Bruce. Because I've bought that, they saw fit to recommend.... some of the Cadfael books and also something about the inside story of Israel's secret services... I mean, really? How's that even remotely relevant?

[pghaworth]

Same here. I get kind of annoyed at how bad the recs are.

[susan_cassidy]

Just tell Amazon not to use that book for recommendations. It is right there on the recommendations screen. If you see a book recommended because of that book, just click where it says "Recommended because you bought xxx. Fix this"; click on Fix this, and it will let you unrecommend books bought because of it. Easy, peasy. I had to unrecommend Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, because they kept recommending vampire books because of it, and I'm not interested in those.

[SteveEisenberg]

This is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2012:

It is not clear whether Amazon tracks purchases loaded on to the Kindle from other sources.

If they are tracking it, I don't see them doing anything with the information, such as complaining when people strip DRM.

There's simply no evidence I know of that Amazon is tracking side-loaded books, not even slight evidence. So there is absolutely no reason to think Amazon is spying on me.

One thing Amazon does do is keep a record of Overdrive Kindle-format library borrowing. I'm seeing titles I borrowed, in "Manage Your Content and Devices," going back to 2011. I consider this a plus, and would object to it being called spying. However, public library systems deliberately do NOT store borrowing histories, due to privacy concerns.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Just tell Amazon not to use that book for recommendations. It is right there on the recommendations screen. .

I know, or I could mark stuff as "not interested" but I can't be bothered to go through everything. Instead, I just ignore the recommendation. I find plenty of books I want to read without their help anyway!

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Yolina

The ones I get are so useless, it's laughable. For example, I bought a non-fiction book about the battle of Bannockburn, so Edward II and Robert the Bruce. Because I've bought that, they saw fit to recommend.... some of the Cadfael books and also something about the inside story of Israel's secret services... I mean, really? How's that even remotely relevant?

I guess my genre is easier to recommend, in that case. I read Urban Fantasy and Dystopian.