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Originally Posted by geneven
... I bought a book from Amazon that I'd just as soon not have listed forever on my account ... So, for the rest of my life, that book will be available to government snooping if, say, a court order is issued for that information.... Amazon keeps a permanent record of your purchases and will not ever protect your privacy to the extent of getting rid of the information it has on you, even if it doesn't need that information.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orion2001
... It is not inconceivable that governments could issue warrants to retailers like Amazon for their records to help further such data-mining projects (who knows if they already have). If the US government could have warrantless wiretaps, I'm sure this isn't too far away from reality.
Who knows, if I bought a copy of Mein Kampf, I might somehow end up on a watch list for being a potential skinhead? ...
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Good points. I have a habit of occasionally reading material that I personally disagree with, if only to make sure that I understand all sides of an argument. What would have been my defense if, in the 50s, I had been hauled before the House Committee for UnAmerican Activities because I had read
The Communist Manifesto? (Well, if I had read it in those days, I could have told them I was not yet 10 years old.)
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Originally Posted by The Hooded Claw
... I'd read several times that Apple does similar snooping about what MP3 and video you own if you use iTunes software to synch media files onto an iPhone or iPod, but have no specific knowledge if it is actually true.
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I recall that Microsoft admitted years ago that they had spyware (they didn't call it that) in their system that kept tract of Word documents and other files. When it became public knowledge, their defense was that it was for analytic purposes only to help better meet consumer needs.
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Originally Posted by Connallmac
... I just think that if you are purchasing ebooks from websites with credit/debit cards that you are kidding yourself if think you have any sort of privacy, regardless of whether or not you use Whispernet.
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Or even when you borrow paper books from your local library.
There's not much we can do to avoid the glare of government should it decide to check into our reading habits short of paying cash for all reading material we can't borrow from friends or steal. And as far as our own words go, perhaps the best advice is that which my father gave me as a young boy when a particularly embarrassing letter surfaced that I had written: Never put anything in print that you'd be unwilling to share with the world.
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Originally Posted by kalsctk
I am more worried about Amazon than the government ...
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I'm far more worried about the government. Especially in the U.S. in these days when the cry of "homeland security" is all that's needed to run roughshod over constitutional protections guaranteed by the Forth Amendment.
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Originally Posted by HansTWN
Nowadays any company will store any purchase made by credit card on their server, to tailor future ad campaigns, for statistical purposes, etc. So even if you buy pbooks somewhere, unless you pay cash and leave no trace, there will be a record for all eternity (since most Americans hardly ever use cash). And companies like Google know more about you than you know yourself.
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Exactly. And if you use a credit card to buy cigarettes or alcohol, how do you know Citibank and their pals won't share that information with your health insurance provider?
We live in interesting times.