Quote:
Originally Posted by eeeink
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.
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I have my Kobos registered to me. A friend has his Kobos registered but since Kobo does not check the email address and does not require any other information, he registers with a email in the format
username@erewhon.xyz or
nameless@newhon.zyx. Which may let you know a couple of his favourite authors but not much else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eeeink
And you make that trade-off -- of giving your behavioral data -- when you purchase ebooks from those companies as well.
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He makes quite a few purchases from Kobo and they happily sync to his ereaders. However, he purchases Kobo gift cards and uses those to pay for his purchases. Admittedly, if someone was dedicated enough, they could trace the card activation back to his card but that would not say who was actually using them. Those 20% off sales at Canadian Tire are a good way of helping to keep the costs of his habit down.