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Originally Posted by TGS
What I don't accept is that those same people question my sanity and cast aspersions on my personality because I do have concerns.
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Just to reiterate, I for one don't think you're nuts. I'm just trying to point out why I do not share your worries.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by TGS
Neither I, nor I suspect the pro-Kindle contributors to this thread, apparently actually know what Amazon can do, has done or will do with the data on Kindles.... What would be useful is information about Amazon's capabilities to interact with devices and evidence about how they have exercised any such capability.
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Actually, we have a pretty good idea what Amazon and competitors like Apple can do and have done.
Both of these companies, and almost certainly B&N and any other ebook reader with 3g capabilities and syncing materials to the cloud, do the following.
- keep a record of what you've purchased
- track your browsing habits on their sites and online stores
- keep track of last page read, notes, and marks at time of sync
- record location data (as does your cell phone) for reliability purposes
- remotely wipe materials you have purchased through the official outlets (e.g. Apple can remotely kill iPhone / iPad apps at any time) in specific circumstances, e.g. an app is actually malware; if your iPhone gets stolen and you use .Me, you can remotely wipe it; a book turns out to violate copyrights)
- update firmware
Most of this has been exhumed via the Orwell "1984" issues and a few other enterprising individuals' research.
So far there is no indication whatsoever that they keep track of any materials you put on the Kindle outside of their official / Whispernet services. They certainly don't sync it for you.
Almost every online retailer is also data mining their sales, which they use for their own internal purposes. They also turn around and sell this data to the publishers. This applies to any product you purchase online, not just books. I'm pretty sure credit card companies, credit agencies, demographic research companies, web email services, search engines etc are all engaged in similar pursuits.
I concur there is a certain lack of transparency here. And if it bugs you, buy something else -- though keep in mind whoever you're buying books from is still up in your business. In practical terms, I do not see any significant additional loss of privacy as a result of Whispernet and similar syncing technologies.
Therefore, I'd say that
duking it out with your significant other on Facebook is a far worse threat to your privacy than the Kindle.