Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy_D
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 |
Seriously? You haven't figured out by now that Best Buy places returned items on their shelves and sells them as new items? They have been doing that for as long as I can remember. Back in the old days I would buy a supposedly brand new cordless phone from them, go home, unbox it and turn it on, then find the address book full of names and numbers. Clearly not a new item. But my point is don't trust the Big Box retail jerks at all. You did not buy this item directly from Amazon, you bought it from Best Buy. Even when buying from Amazon you have to be careful to make sure you are dealing with Amazon and not a third party retailer selling through Amazon. I've gotten non-Amazon products in the past with pieces missing that were sold as brand new but had clearly been opened, but even though I purchased on Amazon.com from a 3rd party retailer Amazon made them replace the item without questions. In your case, the ripoff was all Best Buy and you must deal with them alone. Don't blame Amazon for Best Buy actions.
As far as privacy goes, if you have an internet connection and that connection is provided by a company, I guarantee that company could easily trace your surfing habits if they wanted to or if a court order summoned it. There is no privacy guarantee when surfing the internet. Plenty of companies, governments, and individuals can track you. You have more to be worried about in those entities than you do with a company like Amazon. Chances are you are a total nobody to all those entities and they could care less about you, so you can chill out unless you are browsing things that might catch their attention, or you are a VIP, or you have a lot of money. Just be sensible and stay away from certain websites, use good passwords and change them often, and be vigilant.