What's with the Paranoia?

[hildea]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

1. Somewhere in the middle
2. Somewhere in the middle
3. I don't give much to charity

Not everything is all or nothing. But somethings are.

Great! Then all you need to understand how some of us feel about privacy, is to extrapolate from how you feel about healthy food and healthy exercise.
Note: I'm not arguing that you should share my view on privacy, just explaining my own. You do you, that's no skin off my nose.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Which brand would require you to use their proprietary system? I use Calibre for organizing all my books.

I have no idea. I'm not the one arguing that not registering means missing important features. When I asked which missing features we're talking about, the only answer I got is organising one's library, and since we all know that we can use Calibre for that, I assumed that some of the ereaders we are urged to register won't accept Calibre's tags when importing books. If I guessed wrong, that's good, but then I'm left wondering what these missing features are.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by hildea

I have no idea. I'm not the one arguing that not registering means missing important features. When I asked which missing features we're talking about, the only answer I got is organising one's library, and since we all know that we can use Calibre for that, I assumed that some of the ereaders we are urged to register won't accept Calibre's tags when importing books. If I guessed wrong, that's good, but then I'm left wondering what these missing features are.

Kindles and Nooks don't accept them. But I don't really need them to. I make a catalog in Calibre of all the books currently on the device, send it over with the books and use it for browsing books on the device. I don't bother to use the device's own system. Still, all my readers are registered, so I have no idea of the drawbacks of not registering them.

[Ripplinger]

But you could use a plugboard in Calibre to rename the books when sending to Kindles and Nooks to include the series name and number in the series. So while maybe not as "nice" as collections and series tags that are auto-created on Kobo readers, you still can get around that with the plugboard.

The way I register, using a real email and keeping wifi off (but there's nothing on the Kobo account other than that email address, not even my gender), I'd have to say it's as close to not being registered as possible and avoid any hassles. And there are absolutely no features that I miss that way. I don't care about syncing, and I never buy any books through any reader, I prefer to do purchases from my PC and keep them all in one place after removing DRM. I've been buying most from Amazon lately, but that just means if I buy from Kobo, I'd use a different account with a different email used for purchasing that wouldn't be attached to the reader.

However anyone else prefers to handle their privacy on their reader is perfectly ok. Do whatever works best for you and your peace of mind, there's no right or wrong way.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

...

The way I register, using a real email and keeping wifi off (but there's nothing on the Kobo account other than that email address, not even my gender), I'd have to say it's as close to not being registered as possible and avoid any hassles. And there are absolutely no features that I miss that way. ...

Are you using the library feature on your Kobo? If not, wouldn't using a fake email address be as close to not being registered as possible and avoiding any hassles?

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by John F

Are you using the library feature on your Kobo? If not, wouldn't using a fake email address be as close to not being registered as possible and avoiding any hassles?

No, I don't use anything other than Calibre to send and sort my books to the Kobo, no other Kobo features at all. But with a real email address, there's never a risk that a future firmware upgrade will "break" the use of that fake email, which would then force me to get around registering again with another fake email. That's the only possible hassle you'd have using a fake email that I can see.

But as I said, that works for me and I'm comfortable with Kobo having an email that shares zero info about me. I'm not saying that's the only way to accomplish peace of mind for anyone else.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

No, I don't use anything other than Calibre to send and sort my books to the Kobo, no other Kobo features at all. But with a real email address, there's never a risk that a future firmware upgrade will "break" the use of that fake email, which would then force me to get around registering again with another fake email. That's the only possible hassle you'd have using a fake email that I can see.

But as I said, that works for me and I'm comfortable with Kobo having an email that shares zero info about me. I'm not saying that's the only way to accomplish peace of mind for anyone else.

I don't believe that using a fake email address has ever "broken" a Kobo due to a firm upgrade.

Sounds like paranoia?

[Ripplinger]

Not break a Kobo ... break the use of using a fake email address and have to redo it.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Not break a Kobo ... break the use of using a fake email address and have to redo it.

If it doesn't break the Kobo, then why would you have to redo it?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by haertig

What would they find out about me, the innocuous stuff? They'd find that I like Star Trek. I was heavy into it at one time. That seems like "I don't care" data, doesn't it? Except for some smart hacker thinking, "I wonder if this guy has a password related to Star Trek?" And you know what, I *did* (at one time).

I guess that's the trouble with 'Tribb1e5' (as a password).

[haertig]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I guess that's the trouble with 'Tribb1e5' (as a password).

I groaned so much at that one that I started laughing. Good one!

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by haertig

If it doesn't break the Kobo, then why would you have to redo it?

I don't believe you can use the Kobo unless it has an email address attached to it. I've never tried to fiddle with bypassing the registration process though, I'm just taking what others have posted as probably correct that it must have an email attached to use it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by hildea

Great! Then all you need to understand how some of us feel about privacy, is to extrapolate from how you feel about healthy food and healthy exercise.

What would impact you if you did register your Reader? I'm not talking something perceived but something that is actually an issue to yourself.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I don't believe you can use the Kobo unless it has an email address attached to it. I've never tried to fiddle with bypassing the registration process though, I'm just taking what others have posted as probably correct that it must have an email attached to use it.

From what I've read on this forum, during setup you must give an email address, but the address can be anything, i.e. "my.fake.address@made.up.server.com".

And I don't know how it works setting up through Kobo's desktop app.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

But you could use a plugboard in Calibre to rename the books when sending to Kindles and Nooks to include the series name and number in the series. So while maybe not as "nice" as collections and series tags that are auto-created on Kobo readers, you still can get around that with the plugboard.

The way I register, using a real email and keeping wifi off (but there's nothing on the Kobo account other than that email address, not even my gender), I'd have to say it's as close to not being registered as possible and avoid any hassles. And there are absolutely no features that I miss that way. I don't care about syncing, and I never buy any books through any reader, I prefer to do purchases from my PC and keep them all in one place after removing DRM. I've been buying most from Amazon lately, but that just means if I buy from Kobo, I'd use a different account with a different email used for purchasing that wouldn't be attached to the reader.

However anyone else prefers to handle their privacy on their reader is perfectly ok. Do whatever works best for you and your peace of mind, there's no right or wrong way.

That's actually a good idea. You have your Reader registered to a valid account and don't have to worry about a fake registration no longer working after a firmware update. And the other account is the one that gets used to buy eBooks. And with a valid account used to register, if you do decideto use your account, you can.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I don't believe you can use the Kobo unless it has an email address attached to it. I've never tried to fiddle with bypassing the registration process though, I'm just taking what others have posted as probably correct that it must have an email attached to use it.

You can bypass the registration by modifying the user fields in the database. The problem with that is twice that I know of, a firmware update made use of a field that the hack left blank and that causes a factory reset. Since Kobo does not check the email for validity, my suggestion is to generate an email address that tickles your sense of humour and use it.

You can do this over WiFi or using the PC or Mac desktop app.