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Originally Posted by ZodWallop
If you don't like this sort of monitoring of your usage in general, don't use the services. There's viable alternatives out there for everything. Use Duck, Duck, Go instead of Google Search.
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Check! But I do fallback to Google sometimes, more often than I'd like actually, when the other search engines don't find what I'm looking for - But I don't login to Google, don't accept their cookies, and don't allow them to run scripts (except for temporarily allowing Google Maps). I also clear offline content when I exit my browser - which obviously includes cookies, but also a bunch more stored stuff these days.
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Use Firefox instead of Chrome or Edge or Safari.
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Check! Actually, I use Chromium instead of any of the others you mentioned.
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Use Linux or Mac instead of Microsoft Windows.
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Check! I've been a long term Linux user and advocate, geez, for decades now?
All of your advice above is very good. I agree 100%! I also run my own VPN, Cloud server, and remote backup system rather than using third party offerings.
My job (before retirement) included tons of networking and network monitoring, security monitoring, system administration, monitoring and hardening, etc. So it's kind of ingrained in me to protect myself from the evils and prying eyes of my data hungry neighbors on the internet.
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Having said that, it seems to me if you don't like Amazon monitoring you, you probably shouldn't use Kindle Unlimited. There is an inherent tradeoff for having access to that firehose of streaming books.
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No need to shy away from KU. I don't personally use it, because for me it's not worth the cost. But I have used it in the past - for a trial period with a charge of 99 cents for three months. It's worth that much. But the KU stuff, and eBooks that I purchase normally, get sideloaded only - to a Kindle that is permanently offline. That keeps the corporate data collection to a bare minimum, the way I like it. It also knocks out a few features for me - Xray, and syncing between devices - but I don't really need either of those.
I believe I also deregistered my Kindle from Amazon after initial setup (which requires registration). I'll have to go back and check. I have deregistered in the past, I should make sure I remembered to do that with the PaperWhite I currently use. Pretty sure I did a couple of years ago, but now that I'm saying I did in this post I'm thinking I better go back and make sure I really did! Registration doesn't make any difference if the Kindle is permanently offline, but security is layered, you want redundant layers protecting you.