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This notion that people here who state that they (we) go out of our way to protect our privacy must be doing it to "steal" books is misguided. I don't download materials illegally from any piracy site or anything close to it. Everything I consume online is done through legal means. I pay to subscribe to plenty of online services and am happy to support their creators just like I am the authors of books I buy. (Even if those authors see way too little of the revenues in most cases.) Surely, that's the case for most people who object to what they feel to be privacy invasions by tech companies and websites. I doubt that most people who pirate things are particularly concerned with the ethics and politics of the larger issues. Though it's worth keeping in mind that different places have different laws and ways of seeing things and that what we're used to isn't necessarily the absolute truth.
To isolate desires here to protect privacy as being futile and mere excuses to steal is short sighted. Our internet and television activity is heavily monitored. Companies want our data to profile us so that they can sell things to us. The existence of that data can potentially be used nefariously. We have to consent to this reality to use the sites and products, but that doesn't make it right. There could be laws that restrict these practices to the benefit of the consumer more than what they are. Some prominent political figures advocate that. Companies sell our data to other companies. But we don't get a share of the proceeds even though it's our information. Many argue that we should.
Shoshana Zuboff wrote a well received, longish book about the dangers of these tactics. Harvard thinks enough of her to have kept her around for the last 40 years. Lots of universities have departments that study cyber security from various angles including the ethics and morality of these practices. Plenty of people inside of tech companies who employ these practices have warned of their dangers. Some have left because they don't want to be a part of it anymore and speak out against it.
Do all these people and institutions analyze, talk, and write about this stuff because their real purpose is to "steal books?"
Yes, protecting our identities when using ereaders is pretty futile if we want to get full use out of them. And that's nothing compared to surfing the net, using our phones, watching cable or satellite TV, and beyond.
But that's not the point. There are a lot of us who prefer to protect ourselves to whatever small degree we can via browser extensions, ad blockers, VPNs, etc. It may only buy us 10% of the protection we're hoping for, but so what? We try, we do our best, we don't lose sight of the values that matter to us even if we accept that we have to make compromises.
Some people, not many, I realize, don't have mobile phones. I know a few of them. I admire them for it. I didn't make that choice. I have a phone. I buy apps for it. I surf the net. I subscribe to entertainment services, have a cable account, an Amazon Prime account. But there are times where I read the EULA for a site I'm thinking of subscribing to and decide I'm not going to do it. I don't like their terms and what they're offering isn't important enough to me to play along. Of course, they know my IP address even if I'm not logged in and am only using what I get for free from them.
So I do prefer to be as anonymous as I can be when I get whatever ereader I end up buying. Not because I'm stealing anything, not because I don't want Kobo or whatever entity to know my name, but because I prefer to make the effort to maintain some semblance of control over what I do and who gets to know about it and profit from it, just like I eat good food and take care of myself even though I won't live forever no matter how hard I try.
The OP here was mercilessly attacked. But she/he was honest, respectful, and principled. He thinks about these issues and, agree or disagree, makes reasoned choices. I wish he hadn't been chased away. He had a lot to offer, even if some of you disagree with the approach.
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