Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
If you buy eBooks from any eBookstore, you will have to give your information to them. Also, if you buy a Kindle from Amazon, you already have an account.
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That's correct. Still, I believe you can buy an used Kindle, for example, which wouldn't require you to register it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
What is there to distrust about Amazon, Kobo, and the others?
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Depends on what you're referring to. Amazon as a business is problematic in lots of ways because it has a history of spying on workers trying to unionize and then working to dismantle unionization efforts; it also has used their
knowledge of what third-party sellers are doing in their platform to copy them and, in some cases, to ruin small businesses. Additionally, Amazon has
cooperated with law enforcement to provide access to their (Amazon's) facial recognition tools.
None of those are directly related to the Kindle. However, they can all be valid reasons for some people not to trust Amazon with their data (which could make a case for why not to register a Kindle or buy from Amazon).
For something directly related to the Kindle, there's
this:
"According to a report from security firm Realmode Labs, a chain of vulnerabilities present until recently in Kindle ebooks had created a situation whereby an attacker could compromise a victim’s device and account.
[...] By this method of attack, says Bar-On, an attacker could have gained access to personal details, made purchases using the owner’s credit card and sold ebooks on the Kindle marketplace before siphoning funds into their own account."
As for Kobo, this comes from
Firefox's Privacy not Included list of Christmas gifts, which put the Kobo on #8 in terms of creepiness (their term, not mine):
"While it is nice to have an e-reader option that is not tied to Amazon and all the data collection Amazon does, it doesn't mean you're off the hook when it comes to data collection with Kobo's e-readers.
They may share your personal Information with service providers, business partners or affiliates, retail partners, or by selling it to third parties for marketing purposes. And, we're not sure you can even delete the data they collect on you. You can request that data be corrected.
There was no mention of deletion in the privacy policy."
Keyword here is that Kobo
may do creepy stuff. They may not.
Again, as with most everyday consumer decisions, we choose 50% informed and 50% on a whim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Also, you have to give your information to Overdrive if you want to use it and it's no worse then giving your info to Amazon or Kobo.
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This may be true, but what, and how much do you know about OverDrive?
I don't know them well to say they haven't been involved in nefarious practices in the past.
If something came out, I'd probably regret my decision not to know, but then again, we take these leaps of faith everyday.