[KT3] What can Amazon know about what I read?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Oibgzfka

A spy would have training, tools and resources to deal with this, a terrorist is by definition a barbarian who wouldn't care about a Kindle except for turning it into a bomb, wearing tin-foil hats wouldn't make my question less relevant, and I don't care about porn.

I don't care whether my mom or my kids browse my books either, but I'd be concerned if someone I don't even know could do the same remotely and without my knowledge — it's a matter of principle, even if all they could find were classic fairy tales.

All I want is to make my Kindle as private as possible, and since my experience with the tool is lacking, I'm taking the step of asking a community of very knowledgeable and ingenious people, because reading the manuals and searching around haven't been enough so far.

No, people cannot remotely break into your kindle. You can't find any information for your question because what you are thinking is not possible.

Besides unless you are famous, I don't think anyone would care what you read.

And no buying a gardening book will not make you a POI.
I take that back if you were buying numerous books on growing weeds, Coca-Cola plants and poppies that might draw some attention. Otherwise not a blip.

So my best advice to you is use the tin-foil in the kitchen and quit worrying about nothing.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Oibgzfka

The choice isn't between being concerned about privacy and seeking in formation and throwing the Kindle away and sticking to PB.

I'm not really sure that's true in today's world. In an ideal world where everyone always acted in everyone else's best interests it might be true but then authors wouldn't have anything to write about and nobody would have any reasons to have either paper books or Kindles.

I have to agree with the silly side of this discussion. I find it hard to take your concerns seriously but they are your concerns and I have no real problem with them. I don't mind you wearing a tin hat if you don't mind me giggling a little.

Really though, I think that's just the nature of the world we live in. It's well to assume that whatever we do someone might know it and just life life accordingly and try not to let it bother us. I read a few years ago that people who regularly drive a car are likely to be killed in an accident sometime in their first 70 years. I'm 76. I don't have a car now but I still do drive for other people. Should I decide that I'm on borrowed time and stop it? Nah. I'll drive my neighbor to the doctor in her car when she asks me to. I'll keep on reading on my Kindle and not worry who knows.

Barry

[Andy_D]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Maybe a better question is is he a terrorist, spy, tin-foil hat wearer, or just afraid his mommy will discover he is reading porn? Seems like a bit of extreme paranoia over anyone knowing what he reads....

That is an unfair and ad hominem put-down. Assiduously protecting one's privacy on the internet is a legitimate endeavor, not one to be mocked because you don't happen to share it.

Some perfectly ordinary, law abiding and non-paranoid people do not want to be data mined. Some people are concerned about the way many of the largest companies have mishandled private data that their customers have entrusted to them.

Insurance companies, bankers, lawyers, potential or current employers, and government agencies are known to scoop up *everything* they can find on a person's online activities and to use that information sometimes to the detriment of the objects of the probe.

For all we know Amazon has a cooperative agreement with intelligence agencies to report all of its customers' activity just as AT&T had until that massive violation of privacy was exposed by journalists. In the recent past, other companies have been discovered to have egregiously shared the private data of their customers by design or through inadvertence.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Oibgzfka

Can anyone see anything when I have the wi-fi on? How?

If you have a Kindle connected to the Internet, Amazon can theoretically do anything. They wrote the firmware. Their servers have keys to allow the servers to access Kindles.

And for that matter, anything connected to the Internet that is programmable can theoretically be hacked.

You could, if you only allow it to connect to your own wifi, put in a firewall that filters things out. But even then someone could hack your wifi or the firewall.

There is no absolute privacy if you have a device connected to the internet.

[Oibgzfka]

.....

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Oibgzfka

I'm thankful for your contribution, I really am, so don't take me wrong, but just as I won't mind your giggling, excuse my being honest — you're just displaying a lack of imagination, despite how many books you've read. You find hard to take my concerns seriously not because they're inherently silly, but because you're measuring them about your circumstances, instead of supposing mine could be different. Not every land is the land of the free.

I don't know anything about your circumstances. And, like everyone, including you, I judge things based on what I know.

I do realize that what's inherently silly to me might be very serious to you. If anything, you seem to be having more problem with my point of view than I have with yours.

Barry

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Oibgzfka

I beg your pardon, but have you ever witnessed anyone being murdered by local authorities? Any dissident friend of yours gone "out on vacation" suddenly and haven't returned? Anyone being expelled from college for "expressing anti-patriotic opinions?" Or arrested for that? No? Then you live in a nice and cozy place, don't you? Lucky you. There are different places, though, where different rules apply and what you might consider "tin-foil hat behavior" is called learned common sense.


I'm thankful for your contribution, I really am, so don't take me wrong, but just as I won't mind your giggling, excuse my being honest — you're just displaying a lack of imagination, despite how many books you've read. You find hard to take my concerns seriously not because they're inherently silly, but because you're measuring them about your circumstances, instead of supposing mine could be different. Not every land is the land of the free.


Thank you very much for such a sound post.


You seconded my opinion on this matter. I'll act accordingly. Thank you very much.

No I haven't.
But your comment makes me seriously wonder why if you are in a place where the authorities watch your every move would you ask the original question on such a searchable and public forum.

Now all jokes aside, if you are that concerned, get off the internet completely. Do not upload or download anything ever.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

If you have a Kindle connected to the Internet, Amazon can theoretically do anything. They wrote the firmware. Their servers have keys to allow the servers to access Kindles.

Theoretically, yes.

The same is true of US public libraries, and many in other nations. It is against their policy to persistently store what you read, but policies can be violated.

Some bookstore clerks and librarians have excellent memories.

Some people who pass around anti-regime literature, in repressive countries, will turn out to be spies for the regime.

Perhaps a dictatorship will one day see a Kindle in persistent Airport mode as worth investigating for that reason.

This isn't meant to minimize Oibgzfka's concerns, but only to point out that there are always tradeoffs, and no absolute safety when you read anti-regime literature in a country that is now repressive, or becomes so.

Originally Posted by Oibgzfka

Can anyone see anything when I have the wi-fi on? How?

It depends how good the security is of your WiFi, and who this anyone is. Correctly configured WPA2 WiFi security is supposed to be unbreakable with current technology. Could there be an exploit known only to national security of the US, Russia, China or some other country? Probably not, but who knows?

In theory, there could be roving trucks going around trying to find people who read forbidden literature. Even if regime spies couldn't break properly configured WPA2, it is easy to make a mistake, such as using a password that isn't as good as you think. In practice, the roving truck idea is probably too expensive, which is why the Great Firewall of China works more at (from their point of view) prevention than making arrests.

Essential context is that Amazon, and the US president-elect, are allegedly, according to US mainstream media, in a (I hope metaphorical) war.* So whose side you are on, in this dispute, could matter.

I think it would be easier for a repressive government to physically seize your device than to get the contents from Amazon. But given what you wrote earlier in the thread, don't you know that?

One can't stand up up to tyranny without taking risks. That's a fact. Of course, the risks should be prudent. Which governments are repressive enough to deserve your bravery is a subject for a political forum, or for the Politics and Religion area of Mobileread.

______________________
* If this is news to you, I would google to find relevant articles.