Quote:
Originally Posted by igorsk
We don't know if they track it or not, but they do have such ability. |
Wireless carriers pretty much know where you are anyway; cf Sprint's
fulfilling a large number of warrants for GPS location requests. If you don't want either a large commercial organization to know where you are, or for that information to get into the hands of law enforcement, I suggest you chuck your cell phone in the nearest river.
As to ebs's post, the file in question ("Kindle DX User's Guide") doesn't indicate that the Kindle reports anything other than what's synced via Whispernet. Amazon pretty much tells you "we'll sync your purchases across multiple devices!" so seeing this info would really only shock you if you assume that syncs occur via magic rather than reporting information to a central server.
Similarly, it would be trivial for Sony's software to "phone home" about books loaded onto a Sony device, or again for Sony to turn over purchase records if law enforcement has a warrant. I have no doubt they (and every other online bookstore out there, and a bunch of brick & mortar stores too) put your purchase data into their databases, for a variety of internal and 3rd party uses. (E.g. paper book distributors will aggregate sales data, and resell that information to the publishers for their own marketing uses.)
You are welcome to worry about it if you want, that's your choice. But I don't see any evidence that a non-networked device protects your privacy all that much more than a networked one.