I posted recently to a thread started by someone who wanted to know how he could prevent Amazon from knowing his reading habits or from obtaining other personal data from his use of his tablet. He was roundly criticized by several posters to this forum for being a worry-wart and "if he had nothing to hide" being unduly concerned about anyone knowing his personal habits. I also posted to a different thread about the 6th gen. 8" Fire that I was considering buying.
My comments here connect the dots from the two threads.
I did buy the 8" tablet from Best Buy on sale for $70. When I unboxed it, everything looked normal except for the USB cable. It was not tightly wound with a tie. Instead, it looked like it had been unprofessionally bunched up and shoved into the space it was meant to occupy in the package . I worried a little that, because of the USB cable, that this might be a refurbished unit that I'd been reading in this forum that Amazon sends as replacements for returned units under warranty. After watching the YouTube video described below, I am *really* wondering if I was sold a refurbished device.
The YouTube video I watched was one of those unboxing videos (of the 7" Fire tablet). The unboxer began his video by showing the sealed package that he then tore open. After removing the tablet, he turned it on. He then noticed something unusual. It did not ask him to register it.
It was ALREADY REGISTERED TO SOMEONE ELSE!!! He announced the name of the person to whom it was registered (which he shouldn't have done).
He went to the app store on the device and found that he could buy anything he wanted using the previous owner's account. He could have bought hundreds of dollars of apps, videos, or games, or possibly even merchnadise at Amazon.com and charged it to the tablet's previous owner. (He either didn't complete the test purchase or cancelled it and then deregistered the tablet and registered it in his own name.)
This provides ample evidence that Amazon can be shockingly careless with one's personal information and confirms the Mobileread poster "worry-wart's" privacy concerns after he took quite a bit of heat from others in this forum for being "paranoid."
The other issue is that the YouTube unboxer was sent a used unit even though he said he had purchased a new one. How often is this going on? Now I am really wondering if the sloppy packaging of the USB cable is a clue to my having been given a refurbished tablet. I have bought dozens of things that came with supplied cords or cables over many, many years, and I've never seen one that wasn't compactly tied together.
Do you think I got a refurbished unit, and if so, should I exchange it for another one?
The YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPI-mUVse9c