Quote:
Originally Posted by Stingo
You know, I thought that it would be for me too but I have not minded the buying, downloading, ..., sideloading process so far. Amazon is certainly easier and more integrated. However, I saw something in an Economist article yesterday that made me fee more comfortable with my choice. Supposedly Amazon has been collecting information on Kindle use including details as precise as how long you stay on page, what you look up in the dictionary, what you buy related to what you are reading, what sections of a book you slow down on and pickup on, etc... The article mentioned that Amazon has not explained why it collects the information and has not shared the information with publishers but that they want the information in order to make editing decisions that will massage books to reader desires. Personally I found it chilling. I am happy to give up online purchases and synchronization for a little bit of privacy. |
And authors have already been requesting this type of information (not me. I'd rather people not be tracked. But I've seen the discussions on how useful it would be. And yes, it would be useful. But Amazon isn't admitting or sharing.)
One of the other discussions is about returns--there are some abusing the system of generous returns (of course) and the question is out--Amazon knows if a book was finished or not. But they aren't using that either when it comes to returns. They could (for the most part, especially if the book was just downloaded and read). But right now they don't. But will they some day?