[bigtext]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

A couple of observations by me:

i) can the cloud owner 'look into' your file base with them? If it is part of their TOS that they can look into your deposits, then I would be very wary of placing anything with them.

Thanks for your observations. I wanted to clarify what my perception is of what is happening. Whether or not your books or stored on the cloud or side loaded, it is my impression that the ereader you are using keeps track of what you do on the device itself. When the device connects via wifi (or 3G in the case of Amazon) it uploads the stored information off the device. The original article from the Wall Street Journal in the thread I linked to makes it clear that all the major companies like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Google, and Kobo are engaged in tracking your reading habits for marketing and consumer intelligence purposes. Amazon has a feature, for example, that publicly shows the most popular highlighted passages in a book.

On the Nook there is a hidden partition that stores this data that isn't accessible unless you root the device. Even if you root the device I don't think there is any clear guide that explains where all the collected data is within the file system. It's also clear the data doesn't go away for a book if you delete it from the device. If you plug the device in via USB and delete book files only to restore them later you will find that it has remembered your previous bookmarks, highlights, etc.

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

ii) if there is no legal entitlement to the cloud provider to look into your file storage without proper legal intervention, eg warrant, then no-one should know what's been stored.

I'm not completely clear on what you are saying here. If you are saying that the cloud provider (which is really Amazon, B&N, etc in these cases) has no legal right to do this then I think you are mistaken. I don't think there are any laws that prevent these companies from tracking whatever you do on the device. If you are saying that law enforcement agencies need warrants to get that information that is not definitive either except for certain states. The Wall Street Journal article says this:

EFF has pressed for legislation to prevent digital book retailers from handing over information about individuals' reading habits as evidence to law enforcement agencies without a court's approval. Earlier this year, California instituted the "reader privacy act," which makes it more difficult for law-enforcement groups to gain access to consumers' digital reading records. Under the new law, agencies must get a court order before they can require digital booksellers to turn over information revealing which books their customers have browsed, purchased, read and underlined. The American Civil Liberties Union and EFF, which partnered with Google and other organizations to push for the legislation, are now seeking to enact similar laws in other states.

So only California residents are protected by the law from having their information handed over without a warrant. Not that a warrant is necessarily a huge barrier. If Amazon loses a lawsuit against a big publisher for access to their database for DRM-violaters and\or piracy then the legal system is going to ultimately issue a warrant if Amazon refuses to hand over the information.