Can you pull your kindle off the Amazon grid?

[plasticslug]

lol, I stepped away from this thread for a day and found so many tin foil hats

I guess to shed a bit more light to my question.

1. I want to go with the kindle mainly because of its popularity, battery life and price.

2. I dont usually pay for anything that can be distributed electronically. (does that mean I only download open source free stuff, or I pirate like hell) Ill leave that up to you.

3. I read those articles where amazon tracks your books to offer other recommendations and other personal usage. I dont feel that I should be a marketing platform for them, even if I did buy there hardware I feel they are entitled to nothing regarding my reading habits or usage.

Point being, I want the kindle hardware but do need anything else from amazon. Though they may offer some great deals and incentives, but I will probably find it else where for a price that would be considerably less expensive (possibly free).

Same point with itunes, I dont need them and nothing they offer me would be an incentive to use them.

So that is why I was wondering if i could take the kindle off the amazon grid. I just dont need them... its either the kindle or the latest sony pocket reader for 150 (but dont really care losing that extra inch in screen space)

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

seriously. no. the average user is simply not important enough to be looked at. if it becomes necessary to look at these things, then court orders and warrants would be involved.



seriously people...

Stop putting pictures of me in this thread!!

[daffy4u]

First, thank you for clarifying.

Originally Posted by plasticslug

3. I read those articles where amazon tracks your books to offer other recommendations and other personal usage. I dont feel that I should be a marketing platform for them, even if I did buy there hardware I feel they are entitled to nothing regarding my reading habits or usage.

If you never plan to purchase from the Kindle store, there is no need for you to be concerned about this. They do not track ebooks from other sources, they only track ebooks you buy from the Kindle store (the same way they track anything purchased from Amazon same as all major online retailers). They won't store collections, bookmarks, highlights, notes or even sync books that didn't come from them. There are plenty of folks who have purchased books from others sources or from the darknet who have not had any problems.

Point being, I want the kindle hardware but do need anything else from amazon. Though they may offer some great deals and incentives, but I will probably find it else where for a price that would be considerably less expensive (possibly free).

You NEVER have to go to the Kindle store, so it's a moot point to be concerned about any deals or incentives.

So that is why I was wondering if i could take the kindle off the amazon grid. I just dont need them... its either the kindle or the latest sony pocket reader for 150 (but dont really care losing that extra inch in screen space)

Give it a try for 30 days without registering and see if it works for you (keep the WiFi turned off). If not return it, no harm no foul.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

I'm really curious about this too. Do you think Amazon will get into your stuff? I don't mean the question to be rude, I am just trying to understand the reasoning.

I have always looked at iTunes and Amazon as being an advantage since they save all your content for you. If your device is lost/broken/stolen or even if you just want to get a new version you can easily re-download all your purchases.

As others have said, you can just never turn on wifi. It's impossible to turn on by accident since you have to set up each connection.

no, they won't. it's all cookie driven. little bots running around completing logic loops.

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Maybe he's just thinking of Amazon removing books while he's reading them, like they did a few years back. Could they do that with DRM-free ebooks? Presumably they would know what you are reading the same way that they know what you look at on their website.

seriously one book one time. they learned a hard lesson over that. it will never happen again

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

I completely agree with this statement. I was trying to figure out if paranoia is behind the question or some other reason that I couldn't think of.

A friend of mine's mother seriously believes that government and big business are spying on everyone. No amount of logic can convince her that they do not have the time/money/inclination to watch every ordinary citizen. If he thinks like this then perhaps he will be more comfortable knowing that he is in control of the wifi.

If there were some other reason for his desire to be completely disconnected, I was curious to hear what is was. I gave it quite a bit of thought and couldn't come up with anything.

I know people who will not sign up for customer loyalty cards because they just KNOW that Big Brother is using that information. and then there are the people who will not get credit cards because (my eyes started rolling back in my head and I'm not sure how clearly I got this...) credit card numbers are the number of the beast! and ye all shall be marked! and it will be the number of the beast that marks you!!! yeah... anyway...

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Has anyone ever reported/mentioned/referred to anything like that happening?

no

Originally Posted by plasticslug

lol, I stepped away from this thread for a day and found so many tin foil hats

I guess to shed a bit more light to my question.

1. I want to go with the kindle mainly because of its popularity, battery life and price.

2. I dont usually pay for anything that can be distributed electronically. (does that mean I only download open source free stuff, or I pirate like hell) Ill leave that up to you.

3. I read those articles where amazon tracks your books to offer other recommendations and other personal usage. I dont feel that I should be a marketing platform for them, even if I did buy there hardware I feel they are entitled to nothing regarding my reading habits or usage.

Point being, I want the kindle hardware but do need anything else from amazon. Though they may offer some great deals and incentives, but I will probably find it else where for a price that would be considerably less expensive (possibly free).

Same point with itunes, I dont need them and nothing they offer me would be an incentive to use them.

So that is why I was wondering if i could take the kindle off the amazon grid. I just dont need them... its either the kindle or the latest sony pocket reader for 150 (but dont really care losing that extra inch in screen space)

oh! you should get a sony! seriously! perfect for you

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Stop putting pictures of me in this thread!!

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

When Jill Dando was killed, the person who was originally convicted of doing it was questioned because he searched Google for information on her a few days earlier. Everything you do online is monitored and stored away for future use by both your ISP and most of the websites you go to. Most of it is just used to target advertising at you, but your government will also have access to that data. But unless they were already watching you for some reason, they would probabyl never look at it.

With Amazon and other commercial sites there is a lot to be gained from watching what people do, and I doubt Amazon would pass up on such an opportunity. If they know what books you read and how long you take to read them, they will know precisely when to present you with a list of books you might be interested in. They could even have samples of those books sent to your Kindle automatically on the day they expect you to finish the book you are reading.

That's possible but it's not probable.

is everything you do monitored online? in terms of technology that wouldn't be that hard but to string it together well yes it would be. Google doesn't identify users that are unregistered. The issue I have with your argument is you didn't say that barry george already had issues with assaulting women that clearly made him more of a suspect in that case. It's not like it was totally random without probable cause for the police to suspect it wasn't him. It's like the NSA Eschelon argument...if the technology is true ok fine but having only a mere 4,000 employees to examine everything is next to impossible.

Now there are some technologies that do feed back but even then it can be a bit limited. Digital cable feeds back as to what was watched and that can be used for marketing to get more specific advertising..but..people skip commercials so the argument is moot.

If the argument in the thread suggests that somehow amazon can get remote access of a kindle and remove content that just doesn't happen. If amazon was THAT worried about everything then why is the device so open? Why not block Calibre and Doukan ?

[curstpriest]

You downloading bombmaking manuals and terrorist handbooks and other documents for easy reading to support your local cell?

use a laptop instead >>

[Starko]

Originally Posted by curstpriest

You downloading bombmaking manuals and terrorist handbooks and other documents for easy reading to support your local cell?

use a laptop instead >>

hahahahahaha

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by mdovell

If the argument in the thread suggests that somehow amazon can get remote access of a kindle and remove content that just doesn't happen.

Did too!

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Did too!

Notice the tense. "Did" happen once (folks were made whole and received a refund around 3x what they paid for the book in question). "Doesn't" happen now and "won't" happen again. The public relations hit is too high.

[abookreader]

Just by posting the words "Amazon" and "Kindle" on an internet message board, you have already alerted the Bezos tracking bots of your existence.

You are DOOMED! DOOMED!!!!! So you might as well by a Kindle now. No putting that genie back into a bottle once you've popped the cork.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Notice the tense. "Did" happen once (folks were made whole and received a refund around 3x what they paid for the book in question). "Doesn't" happen now and "won't" happen again. The public relations hit is too high.

But it shows what is possible, and proves that Amazon built that functionality into their design. If they monitor everything you look at on their website, why is it so far fetched that they would do the same with their Kindle?

[DiapDealer]

But it shows what is possible, and proves that Amazon built that functionality into their design. If they monitor everything you look at on their website, why is it so far fetched that they would do the same with their Kindle?

Only people who had their wireless turned on had that particular book removed from their Kindle (or turned it on later). If they left their wireless off (or de-registered and "went off the reservation"), 1984 is still sitting there where it always was.

I agree that Amazon learned their lesson on that one. So did consumers... back up your investment. Amazon may again be put in the same situation they found themselves in with that particular title, but I guarantee that it will be handled differently in the future.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

But it shows what is possible, and proves that Amazon built that functionality into their design. If they monitor everything you look at on their website, why is it so far fetched that they would do the same with their Kindle?

get freaking over it. as has been said REPEATEDLY they learned their lesson. they were not looking at individual kindles, they were looking at "where is this unauthorized version of 1984?" and quit trolling the kindle forums

[ProfCrash]

We know that Kindles work without having the 3G or WiFi turned on. The functionality is reduced but the basic features of the device work. I have no idea about the Wifi because I am not that interested in technology.

I get it. He wants a good e-reader with great features at a low price but does not want to have his purchases used for developing a profile of him. I know plenty of folks who feel that way.

Heck, I kind of feel that way. I use a bigus address, name, and phone number when I pick up my grocery discount cards and that type of thing. I am not worried about the government. I want the discounts but don't want to play their marketing game. So I end up screwing up their data, bad me, and getting my discounts. Yeah

People have different ideas of what amount of info they give the coorporations. For some folks it is just that they don't want to play the marketing game. For some folks it is that they are worried about the governments ability to access that information using warrants and the like. The reason is not important.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

When Jill Dando was killed, the person who was originally convicted of doing it was questioned because he searched Google for information on her a few days earlier.

No. He wasn't arrested because of that. You can go look at the various reports about that case if you wish and the reasons for him being apprehended. None of the reasons were because he "searched Google for information on her a few days earlier" and that isn't even listed as a reason as to why he was initially a suspect. FUD :P