How much does Amazon know about my books?

[Bill Lumburgh]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Assume that everything on there is accessible by Amazon, then you will not be surprised. Remember the horrified users last year who were so stunned when Amazon came in overnight and deleted certain books from millions of devices.

Well, the way I see it, it's simple. Amazon is a business. If there's value in using that data it will be used in some way, unless there's a really good reason not to use it. Back when the whole '1984' thing happened, it made the news. I don't think they care too much if you, I or some guy with a blog doesn't like their privacy policy but when CNN and Foxnews call, that's just not good for business.

So they're probably using that data internally, even datamining the hell out of it but I don't see them sharing it with anyone (except as required by law).

Originally Posted by kacir

On the other hand, if somebody caught Amazon reporting that they have a book on their Kindle that MIGHT be infringing, there would be *huge* backslash. Public relations nightmare of the highest magnitude imaginable. Do not forget how much USA citizens love to litigate with rich corporations.

Excellent point. And there's absolutely nothing illegal about buying an eBook from some other store, converting and uploading it to my Kindle or, if I wanted to make a point, convert an empty text file and upload it to my Kindle with metadata from some other book. They might be able to come up with some valid-sounding, technical reason for collecting location data but snooping around people's Kindles for fun or profit is going to be a lot more difficult to explain.

And it's not just us regular folks who can sue corporations here. The government can sue as well. And that just ain't good for business.

[Bikeridr]

I couldn't care less. I've bought the Kindle and by doing that, agreed to the terms of use.
If Amazon wants to check/read/laugh/get pissed off/store whatever there'll be of documents on my Kindle; well go ahead. It's only going to contain books and text anyway. And of course, as with all unsecured electronic devices, there'll be no personal data stored.

But I might, just for the fun of it, store the construction data for a nuclear bomb along with names of Obama, Bin Laden and Medvedev in the same document. -And call it "My personal terrorist attack plans.doc"

[TallMomof2]

Does Amazon even track non-Amazon content? I say probably not because non-Amazon content is not synced across devices/apps. Also, if I do a factory reset I lose my last page read on all non-Amazon content.

(Actually, I would love to have the ability to sync non-Amazon content across devices/apps.)

[Bill Lumburgh]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

(Actually, I would love to have the ability to sync non-Amazon content across devices/apps.)

Me too. As long as it's opt-in and priced appropriately, I'd even pay to have cloud-based storage and sync for personal documents.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Bikeridr

But I might, just for the fun of it, store the construction data for a nuclear bomb along with names of Obama, Bin Laden and Medvedev in the same document. -And call it "My personal terrorist attack plans.doc"

I know you are kidding, and if you did so it would be a joke........but there isn't a sense of humor about these things right now.

I'm just sayin'..........

[el_brio]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I know you are kidding, and if you did so it would be a joke........but there isn't a sense of humor about these things right now.

I'm just sayin'..........

Agreed. This is not something you casually joke about on an internet forum(at least if you live in the USA). The above string of words in close proximity probably popped up on a NSA intelligence list soon after you posted them. People have been visited by the secret service for less.

[Bikeridr]

desertgrandma and el_brio:
Note taken.

On the other hand. I feel a bit sorry that one can not (regardless of nationality or religion) make a joke (even a morbid in some peoples sense) on an international public forum without feeling the weight of The Sword of Damocles.

Again, since the joke is already written and I would make it even worse by deleting/editing it, I will herby apologise to those who feel offended.

[Falcao]

Fear!

[wurzel]

Originally Posted by el_brio

Agreed. This is not something you casually joke about on an internet forum(at least if you live in the USA). The above string of words in close proximity probably popped up on a NSA intelligence list soon after you posted them. People have been visited by the secret service for less.

El_brio

What disturbs me much more than the 'big brother' Amazon watch over my Kindle content is the image you have as your Avatar - it is worse than spooky - it is AWFUL!!!

[speakingtohe]

yes no more of that free speech stuff, it upsets the cats.

[GA Russell]

I find it interesting that the OP asks, "What does Amazon know about what I have on my eBook reader?", and most of the responses (instead of answering the question) say "Don't worry about it."

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I find it interesting that the OP asks, "What does Amazon know about what I have on my eBook reader?", and most of the responses (instead of answering the question) say "Don't worry about it."

If you've got Whispernet enabled then they'll know what specific Amazon Kindle store items you've got on there and just the filenames of whatever personal documents you've put on are. If you've got Whispersync enabled then they'll know what your last read time, last read page, annotations and names of items inside your collections.

At no point do they actually send the contents of any file back to Amazon. Annotation data is used so they can generate the popular highlights feature but they only use the locations you've annotated/highlighted and not your actual annotations. Collections and annotations are synced so you can share it between all the devices linked to your Amazon account. Nobody else gets this data.

There is nothing stopping you from naming a document about cupcakes recipes something else like My Super Secret Journal. All Amazon will know is that you've got "My Super Secret Journal" but they have no idea what it contains.

As with everybody else, I agree with them in saying that I wouldn't worry about it. Amazon aren't going to start publishing your reading lists.

The 1984 fiasco which everybody likes to bring up is a special case. Amazon was in a no win situation. As anybody can publish a book for the Kindle on the Kindle store, you get situations like 1984 where somebody published it without the right to publish. At this point, Amazon has two choices. They can get rid of the book and face the wrath of users or not get rid of the book and face the wrath of the real publishers and potentially the courts. I'd like to see the people who raged at Amazon in this situation and how they'd handle it :P

[FF2]

From the OP.

It appears lots of folks worry less about privacy than some of us. I'm curious that the topic had not been raised earlier. But again, I guess the ol' "if you have nothing to hide then ....." is the mantra of ereader users.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by FF2

I'm curious that the topic had not been raised earlier.

Not sure where you get that idea from. It has been raised before and it gets raised every few weeks and has been since the Kindle 1 came out years ago. There is even another current topic about this in the Kindle developer section of this forum.

[Tiersten]

If you really don't want Amazon to know what you've got on your Kindle then don't ever enable wireless on it. Thats the only guaranteed solution which doesn't require hacking the Kindle.