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When you register with Amazon or Kobo, you give them explicit permission to create a profile of you and use that to send you ads, or to send that information to other companies so that they can send you ads or make predictions about your behavior. This can then be used by anyone who has the money to purchase that information. Insurance companies, credit companies, lending houses. You say "just leave WiFi off" but that's not the point -- any time you then turn WiFi on again to get updates, etc, all that data gets uploaded to their system.
And you make that trade-off -- of giving your behavioral data -- when you purchase ebooks from those companies as well.
My reading habits, including which books I read and how often, are my business. They are not anyone else's business unless I choose to share that information with them. Until these companies came along nobody felt the need to justify their privacy, and I don't feel the need to justify it now. I don't live stream my bathroom usage for the world to see, nor do I disclose what color underwear I'm wearing. Privacy is a fundamental human right, and these companies are trying to take it away for their profit. Well, fuck that.
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