Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcey
I hope that I didn't give the impression that I was accusing Amazon of collecting the data because I'm not. I was speaking in general. I thought that DavidH raised a valid concern and didn't deserve the tinfoil hat response.
When Nate posted the log file I looked at it from geek curiosity. I remember looking at the data in the log and thinking that it would be trivial to parse the log and gather data that would be very valuable to Amazon and the book industry in general. Amazon already has data on what books you've bought from them but this has data such as:
1) How soon after you bought the book did you read it.
2) When and how long did it take you to read it.
3) How many books do you read at a time.
4) How many books did you read from Amazon vs other sources
5) How much time did you spend reading books vs newspapers etc..
You get the idea.
I consider my reading habits to be personal data though and I don't think it's Amazon's right to gather this data about me just because I agreed to buy a Kindle from them (and I didn't buy a Kindle either).
I wouldn't have a problem if Amazon sent an email to their Kindle users and explained they would like to gather this data and you have the ability to volunteer the information. Otherwise you will be excluded. A lot of people would agree to be data gathering pods.
I don't think that Amazon would gather the information without explicit approval though because they know it would be a public relations nightmare and the data gathered wouldn't be worth the negative publicity. The negative publicity would be from people like readingaloud who are very concerned about this type of activity.
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Keeping in mind that you can download books, read books, even purchase books from Amazon all without ever using Whispernet, I really don't think that Amazon could even hope to use it to monitor ... well, anything.
Most of the time, I simply leave it off. The few times I have used Whispernet have been to purchase a book that I particularly wanted to read, and thought I had already purchased.
The rest of the time, I download to the computer from Amazon, or here, or sometimes from other ebook sellers and transfer the items to my memory card when I am offline.
All I can say is, it would be a really crappy means of monitoring someone if it is so screamingly easy to circumvent.