[ixtab]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

It's also the only update for the Paperwhite, a new device with a new fork of the Kindle code. It's completely possible that the update mechanism has changed for the Paperwhite. I'll also note that folks have already pointed out that the 5.3.0 update is a full restore update, not an incremental. I don't believe that Amazon is explicitly "declaring war" on homebrew here, much like I don't believe they were doing anything to "preserve" it. It's more that they didn't care and didn't go out of their way to break it. But in general, small diff patches are more prone to problems and quirks than just paving and installing the boot partition fresh.

Yes, and no.

Of course, Amazon is improving their product with every version. And of course, they are free to replace the entire system partition with a full image (as they did with the 5.3.0 update). That "full wipe" also had the side effect of removing the jailbreak (which is in fact just a simple key file, allowing to "approve" packages to be installed)...

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Keep in mind that folks like ixtab are speculating just like I am here.

Well... before I answer: thanks for your objective contributions. These things get emotional very fast, and I really appreciate that you're sticking to the facts.

Nevertheless, I think that I'm in a better position to judge than you are, simply because I've followed, and had been involved, in the development from the start... So let's take a look at the Kindle Touch / Paperwhite history.
BTW, you can follow much of it by simply looking at the Jailbreak section of the Kindle Touch Wiki.

• Version 5.0.0 and 5.0.1: these versions were vulnerable to a serious security vulnerability discovered by yifanlu. In short, any .mp3 could compromise the Kindle. That hole was closed, because it was dangerous.
• Version 5.1.0 and 5.1.1: Amazon intermittently introduced an even more severe vulnerability (discovered by eureka), so that every website could compromise Kindles. This was closed with 5.1.2, because it was really dangerous.
• Versions between 5.0.2 and 5.2.0 (yes, 5.2.0 is the first version of the PW): These versions are vulnerable to a bug which only manifests itself when a particular file is knowingly placed on the user-controlled storage space of the Kindle. In other words: the user had to explicitly PUT this file there (there is absolutely no way that it could "inadvertently" end up there).
• Version 5.3.0: Amazon has both closed ALL previous jailbreak possibilities, and removed any existing jailbreak. They have closed the last possibility of executing user-defined code. Even though the last jailbreak was no security risk at all, they decided to render it impossible.

So, while I agree with regard to the serious vulnerabilities - why don't they just let us (developers, and users alike) play and enhance their device?

The data.tar.gz/data.stgz "thing" is no threat to them at all. Developers enjoy to play around with their devices and see what they can do - and they might actually come up with actual enhancements. I consider Collections Manager to be much better than what the KT/PW provides, and many people agree.

It would have been soooooooo easy for Amazon to keep the Status quo: they could simply overwrite the main partition. Nobody would have complained, and everyone would have been happy, if they had kept the previously existing modding possibilities.

But what they did was to overwrite the main partition, AND they explicitly blocked any known method to get access to it again. And they knew exactly what they were doing (heck, they probably wouldn't even have KNOWN about the issues without this forum!). ...Which was a glaring middle finger at the developer community here. So yes, Amazon is reading these forums, and is explicitly shooting at us. Nobody here really wanted this, because we all appreciated Amazon. I don't know why they see us as enemies.

Originally Posted by Kolenka

I'm curious though, has anyone confirmed what Amazon does with all this telemetry coming from the device? Or taken note on how much non-anonymized data is sent back?

Yes. My entire log file. EVERYTHING. Is that enough to make you suspicious?

No, I don't know how much of that log file Amazon really reads or evaluates. I can't control it. Even if they directly throw it away: why on earth are they asking for the log file of everything that I do on my Kindle in the first place?