Quote:
Originally Posted by fabricalado
People not wanting to provide their reading habits to whichever companies because they don't trust/like them seems reason enough for me not to register an ereader.
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Yes, I agree. This is my personal reason for not registering (well, in addition to it not having any benefit for me).
There are lots of interesting discussions to be had around this issue:
- Privacy vs convenience
- Who owns data, who gets to decide how they are used
- The power of big companies, and how they use it
- The challenges around mass surveillance, related to freedom of thought, crime prevention, the state of democracy, and the chilling effect. If I know that the police can get access to my reading habits, will that make me less likely to buy books about some topics -- whether personally embarassing or about illegal activities I might consider, like civil disobedience? (In parenthesis: A Norwegian journalist was arrested for a book he was reading (this one, but with this cover) when in USA (he was going to Mexico, but had to change planes in USA), stripsearched, spent a night in jail, and was then sent back to Norway. So it's not completely farfetched to be concerned about law enforcement jumping to conclusions based on your reading material.)
- And on a more personal level: Functionality of ereaders, drawbacks and advantages of various ways to set up our ereaders
I'm not going to spend any more time trying to explain my personal preferences to you, Jon -- it's about as useful and interesting as registering my ereader at that Ukrainian (?) bookstore. If anyone wants to discuss any of the more interesting related topics, I'll probably join.