[Bob Russell]

After a discussion with eReader, I have received a full explaination of the manner in which the credit card number is handled. It is not stored in the file, but there is a hash value tied to a small subset of the digits in a manner that makes extrapolation of the credit card number impossible even under the worst of circumstances. I could give a bit more information, but would rather error in the direction of caution as someone out there is always trying to break protection schemes.

This DRM method seems very reasonable after further consideration, and I think all of us here want eReader.com and other ebook vendors to succeed (how would you like Microsoft or Sony to take over the market all by itself one day with their user unfriendly DRM schemes?!!!). eReader will be coming out with a clearer statement about the use of credit card numbers in the future that will hopefully help future customers to feel more comfortable.

So, bottom line, I have no remaining privacy concerns specific to eReader.
My face is red for having been so silly to assume they had stored the credit card info in the files. You know what they say about those that ASS/U/ME. But all's well that ends well!

Now everyone go buy a book from eReader.com so I don't feel so bad about my original post!

P.S. In the process of resolving my concerns, I've made some contacts with some very nice people at eReader, and I hope to bring some interesting tidbits to this site as a result of that connection. Stay tuned for more!