Retailer Data on Readers - Useful or Creepy?

I find that type of data gathering excessively creepy. They collect the data for a reason, which is to manipulate our buying habits. Some people are okay with that, but those who aren't okay with that should have the right to opt out of the data collection process. At the moment, the only way to opt out is to remove yourself from a lot of everyday activities that people share together -- which isn't right.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by JoeD

Then the next time you log into the site, you get a nice screen appearing saying

"Get better ebook recommendations, tailored to your preferences. Tick the box below to opt-in to this service.

This service works by using data collected by yada yada"

As it happens, that's already occurring with your browsing history and purchase history on amazon and other stores. A feature I wish was opt-in.

Sadly, those are inevitably opt-out - generally by requiring a tracking cookie. :/

Frankly, it's gotten to the point that I'm going to start adding EVERY tracking/advertising service I notice (yay, Ghostery) to my hosts file. All advertisers need to know are: 1. Did the ad get hit by a unique IP address? 2. Is that IP address likely to have been a 'bot? (rather easy to figure out) 3. Was there click through? (it's a major bitch these days to disable referrer headers - and lots of sites will break without them) These are all very easy to determine without active tracking of users and their browsing habits.

[Edward M. Grant]

I'm 99% sure that the Kindle hardware and Kindle for PC apps let you turn off collection of data. I haven't seen a similar option in Kindle for Android, but Android itself seems to be a bloated mass of spyware.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Also - WHY someone wants to know something is often more important to me than WHAT they want to know, and "what they could do with it" is contrasted with "what they are likely to do with it". A nosy neighbor is creepier to me than Amazon collecting my reading habits. Statistically, the neighbor is more likely to cause me grief than Amazon.

With Amazon you know what you're getting into upfront; it's an opt-in. You deal with them or not at *your* choice.
Just like actors and performers and politicians who *choose* to trade off privacy for money and/or power. (Some of us simply chose to sell smaller pieces of ourselves, if at all.)

Neighbors and, worse, relatives are hard to manage opt-out scenarios and some simply won't accept a "no".

Privacy is an illusion; all there is, is people and organizations (and super-duper computers) you *know* are somehow watching/tracking you and the ones that you don't know about yet.
(Like the good looking blonde just down the street. )

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Privacy is an illusion;

You'll have to excuse me, I just had a bit of Doug Henning flashback.

[Fbone]

Buy the print edition with cash if you are too creeped out.

[fjtorres]

Or create a fake ID and buy your Kindle books using Amazon gift cards (available at chain drugstores all over).
They'll still know all your habits but they won't be able to tie them to you by name. (just by IP and physical address. Of course, that means you'll have to do the ebook d/s from a library or by wardriving. )

[pidgeon92]

I wish I could muster up the energy to care one way or the other.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Creepy, but easily avoided. Turn off Wi-Fi, sideload everything.

Yup, this is what I do. I have used my Wi-Fi ONCE, just to see if it worked (it does) I haven't used it since. I have always sideloaded all of my books at first because I didn't have a choice, and secondly because I want them on my pc where I can back them up etc.

Although I'm not sure if I really have a problem with this issue, I'd rather get notices about products that I'm interested in, rather than stuff I couldn't care less about.

[charlesatan]

It's all in the math (for Target shoppers):

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/ma...pagewanted=all

[cromag]

It has always struck me as creepy, even before I bought an ereader. "No Wi-Fi" was high up on my list of "features."

[BeccaPrice]

I use wifi occasionally, when I buy a book from Amazon, but most of my books are side-loaded, and I don't share highlights. anybody know what data Amazon collects? (they seem more secretive than B&N) and whether it's collected on side-loaded books?

[elemenoP]

Tangent, but I hope it's interesting:

>>Novelist Scott Turow says he's long been frustrated by the industry's failure to study its customer base. "I once had an argument with one of my publishers when I said, 'I've been publishing with you for a long time and you still don't know who buys my books,' and he said, 'Well, nobody in publishing knows that,' " says Mr. Turow, president of the Authors Guild. "If you can find out that a book is too long and you've got to be more rigorous in cutting, personally I'd love to get the information."

Others worry that a data-driven approach could hinder the kinds of creative risks that produce great literature. "The thing about a book is that it can be eccentric, it can be the length it needs to be, and that is something the reader shouldn't have anything to do with," says Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. "We're not going to shorten 'War and Peace' because someone didn't finish it."<<

Interesting that the article paired these two paragraphs, because Farrar, Straus & Giroux WAS Scott Turow's original publisher, and Jonathan Galassi was his editor. And yes, I'm sure they had no idea what to do with him or who was reading his books (even as Scott Turow was saving their company) because they publish literary fiction and not courtroom thrillers.

http://harvardmagazine.com/1997/11/books.html

Turow is no longer published by FSG.

eP

[Mujokan]

This sort of thing has become part of the modern economy. If you think about Facebook, Google, Apple, we are not talking small potatoes.

The main rule is that when you choose to make use of the product, any "side effects" should be obvious and clear. Insofar as this type of data monitoring is part of the profit of the product, you don't have a right to demand the same product without the data monitoring. Exceptions to this would be under abuse of market power, e.g. due to unfair competition there are no viable alternative services.

For my Nook Simple Touch I am pretty sure it is a loss-leader for B&N, like the Xbox is for Microsoft. I don't mind a bit of anonymous data monitoring on those products. However I would never join Facebook. Not anonymous enough.

In a way data monitoring is good for me because it enables a product range that I am kind of "parasitic" off of -- I use the cheap services without contributing back much. E.g. my NST has no credit card attached and B&N don't know my actual identity.

[LucyLu]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Or create a fake ID and buy your Kindle books using Amazon gift cards (available at chain drugstores all over).
They'll still know all your habits but they won't be able to tie them to you by name. (just by IP and physical address).

Unfortunately they'll know a lot more than this. According Cindy Cohn, legal director at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation " They'll know if you skip to the end to read how it turns out but also where you read you're ebooks. Kindles, iPads and other e-readers have geo-location abilities; using GPS or data from Wi-Fi and cell phone towers, it wouldn't be difficult for the devices to track their own locations in the physical world."

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132058...ding-up-on-you

According this article Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony declined the request for an interview about e-reader data. Why? What's the problem if you have nothing to hide?

This in my opinion is bad, very bad...