Nia Critical Error You didn't synchronize your reader

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sasaki

Let's clarify some things.

I never thought my device could send data without wifi turned on, that's why I've been using it offline for some months. Your procedure was absolutely coherent and answered the question. Indeed there is no need to modify the database to protect one's privacy on a kobo reader. Creating an account with a false email and then turning wifi off to perform any other operation offline is enough. Yes this is true, thank you pointing that and this definitely should be documented on a potential wiki page for new users who want to protect their privacy.

There's NOTHING TO PROTECT! I use one of my real e-mail addresses and I've had zero problems. Thinking that you need to protect yourself is PARANOIA.

I chose to modify the database mainly because I do want to use wifi and I don't want to sign the EULA for ethical reasons. This latest statement should be enough so I don't have to justify my choices further. There are other minor reasons why I chose it that I already explained and I'm tired to repeat it again and again.

How are you going to buy eBooks? If you are not going to buy eBooks, where are you going to get them? You give more information to any store when you buy eBooks then you do registering a Kobo Reader.

[sasaki]

@JSWolf Let's discuss that in another topic would you ? This will then benefit the entire community.

A dedicated topic seems necessary as there is a lot to say and it looks like you will need a lot of detailed explanations to understand what I say and my ethical choices. A lot of things has already been proved in this topic and the other one from 2011 about Kobo's data policy and practices, but you don't seem to understand well (did you read the other topic ?). As I said I would be happy to explain you with further details and debate, because I don't know everything and I may make mistakes on some specific points. Maybe you will end up proving what you say is true. Let's play won't we ?

Let's just finish here with this book question, so we don't have to talk about it anymore in the other topic. One can legally download a lot of free domain classic books from this very forum or a bunch of other websites. I also like to download creative commons books or GPL books. These are free licenses that respect copyright, maybe you don't know it yet after all. I also read other documents than books on my device.
Thank you for worrying about my privacy when I buy books on the web (this is what you're doing right ?), but I can handle it by myself. As you noticed I am very cautious. Indeed I prefer buying paper books at my local bookstore than on the web. Fortunately there are still some editors that sell ebooks while respecting their users privacy.

Will you stop thinking I am a dangerous pirate now ? I doubt it because this is already the second time I explain you this. I've just put more details. I won't ask you to stop thinking I am a psychopath, because you seem to really hold on to it.
I must just say I will probably not be able to post here anymore for a few days at least. Don't think I'm escaping ok ?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How are you going to buy eBooks? If you are not going to buy eBooks, where are you going to get them? You give more information to any store when you buy eBooks then you do registering a Kobo Reader.

With Kobo you can use your fake email address to login and then use a gift card to purchase the books. While you can do that on your ereader, it's more likely that you will use a computer, download them and then sideload to your Kobo.

I seem to remember one person who described doing this with Amazon as well.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

With Kobo you can use your fake email address to login and then use a gift card to purchase the books. While you can do that on your ereader, it's more likely that you will use a computer, download them and then sideload to your Kobo.

I seem to remember one person who described doing this with Amazon as well.

Amazon is more complicated and needs a working email address and a gift cert at registration time instead of credit or debit card details. A gift cert bought on US marketplace worked, A UK one did not. You can buy a gift voucher on a different marketplace to the one for your country. You don't need to enter an address or go to website.

If you are not buying Kobo ebooks, then an imaginary email address works.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How are you going to buy eBooks? If you are not going to buy eBooks, where are you going to get them? You give more information to any store when you buy eBooks then you do registering a Kobo Reader.

There are about 80,000 good reasons to have an eink based ereader even if you never buy ebooks. Legitimate public domain. About 70,000 on gutenberg.org. There are other free (but copyright) and free Public Domain ebooks.

I expect a library needs a real email address, mine does, though there is no subscription, you just need a local real address too. No idea actually how to read Bolinda Borrow Box without Android App; supposedly there is Webpage download and maybe ADE is needed.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by sasaki

Your procedure was absolutely coherent and answered the question. Indeed there is no need to modify the database to protect one's privacy on a kobo reader. Creating an account with a false email and then turning wifi off to perform any other operation offline is enough. Yes this is true, thank you pointing that and this definitely should be documented on a potential wiki page for new users who want to protect their privacy.
…

I chose to modify the database mainly because I do want to use wifi and I don't want to sign the EULA for ethical reasons.

There is no signing of an EULA because you don't ever enter your address. A fake name and imaginary email address is not agreeing to an EULA.

Most are also unenforceable.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by sasaki

I won't ask you to stop thinking I am a psychopath, because you seem to really hold on to it.

Don't take it too personally. JSWolf has a habit of asking unsolicited, irrelevant questions in many threads, even -- it appears -- after a moderator has expressly forbade him from doing so. It's not just something he's doing especially for you, and there are other people here who also take privacy concerns seriously and don't think you're a psychopath.

I haven't done this myself, but have you tried enabling sideload mode immediately after doing the full factory reset? In theory, this ought to let you bypass setup entirely, so you don't have to enter an e-mail address at all. The downside is you'll have to download and install firmware updates manually, but I doubt that'll be a problem for you, since you're already looking into SSH and hosts file edits.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not completely correct hence the 3 times a firmware update caused a full reset.

Simply wrong.

[sasaki]

Don't take it too personally. JSWolf has a habit of asking unsolicited, irrelevant questions in many threads, even -- it appears -- after a moderator has expressly forbade him from doing so.

I've actually been aware of this behaviour since my device unboxing since he trolls similarly every person who asks about privacy. I'm not taking it personally, just beginning to be annoyed. Arguing with him is a good training for everyday life. I plan to have that debate more often. I simply hope that reasonable arguments can help him understand better the world in which he lives.

I won't ask you to stop thinking I am a psychopath, because you seem to really hold on to it.

This was mostly a joke. Experimenting things.

There is no signing of an EULA because you don't ever enter your address. A fake name and imaginary email address is not agreeing to an EULA.

This is possible. I didn't try the whole registration process so maybe they don't ask you to sign a EULA. I would be surprised though. I prefer no to sign anything anyway, even with a false email. It's a posture. Everyone should read their weird documents. Doing so for dropbox some years ago really made me aware of the nightmare : they stated the documents you upload on their servers don't belong to you anymore, but to them and they can do anything with it. This should just be ignored in my opinion.

I expect a library needs a real email address, mine does, though there is no subscription, you just need a local real address too.

I think you already know that protecting one's email adress is far from being enough to protect privacy. I give my email adress to people and enterprises I trust after I read their privacy policy. I'm not really used to buy things on the web. When possible I prefer to buy things in physical places.

I haven't done this myself, but have you tried enabling sideload mode immediately after doing the full factory reset?

Yes I did as I said in the first post, but it didn't work because of my firmware version that doesn't support it. I didn't flash the firmware yet, trying Koreader and Nickel menu first.

The downside is you'll have to download and install firmware updates manually, but I doubt that'll be a problem for you, since you're already looking into SSH and hosts file edits.

I actually prefer to do things manually. It gives me better control over my device and the pleasure to learn things about it. I'm actually pleased to discover the underlying system is linux. I may open a topic for help about hosts file edit if it ends up being more complicated than editing one line. As I said I'm not confident enough in my knowledge in DNS and related stuff.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I haven't done this myself, but have you tried enabling sideload mode immediately after doing the full factory reset? In theory, this ought to let you bypass setup entirely, so you don't have to enter an e-mail address at all.

You have to install the software update first. Factory reset on Kobo will restore everything, including the software (for some reason, often called firmware on this forum.) to it's original version, which does not support Sideloaded mode. (With the possible exception of the Clara 2E.)


I will also point out that the easiest way to get a Kobo working (unregistered) is to simply copy over a working blank database, (either with the SQL insert command, or registered with a fake e-mail address.) But sideloadmode does have the big advantage that the Kobo will still be able to download and install it's own dictionaries and future updates.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sasaki

@JSWolf Let's discuss that in another topic would you ? This will then benefit the entire community.

A dedicated topic seems necessary as there is a lot to say and it looks like you will need a lot of detailed explanations to understand what I say and my ethical choices. A lot of things has already been proved in this topic and the other one from 2011 about Kobo's data policy and practices, but you don't seem to understand well (did you read the other topic ?). As I said I would be happy to explain you with further details and debate, because I don't know everything and I may make mistakes on some specific points. Maybe you will end up proving what you say is true. Let's play won't we ?

Let's just finish here with this book question, so we don't have to talk about it anymore in the other topic. One can legally download a lot of free domain classic books from this very forum or a bunch of other websites. I also like to download creative commons books or GPL books. These are free licenses that respect copyright, maybe you don't know it yet after all. I also read other documents than books on my device.
Thank you for worrying about my privacy when I buy books on the web (this is what you're doing right ?), but I can handle it by myself. As you noticed I am very cautious. Indeed I prefer buying paper books at my local bookstore than on the web. Fortunately there are still some editors that sell ebooks while respecting their users privacy.

Will you stop thinking I am a dangerous pirate now ? I doubt it because this is already the second time I explain you this. I've just put more details. I won't ask you to stop thinking I am a psychopath, because you seem to really hold on to it.
I must just say I will probably not be able to post here anymore for a few days at least. Don't think I'm escaping ok ?

I was not saying you'd pirate eBooks. I was curious where you'll be getting eBooks given you won't give Kobo your email address.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

There are about 80,000 good reasons to have an eink based ereader even if you never buy ebooks. Legitimate public domain. About 70,000 on gutenberg.org. There are other free (but copyright) and free Public Domain ebooks.

I expect a library needs a real email address, mine does, though there is no subscription, you just need a local real address too. No idea actually how to read Bolinda Borrow Box without Android App; supposedly there is Webpage download and maybe ADE is needed.

In the US, you need a real email address to borrow from Overdrive. You also need a real email address to register ADE or have an Amazon account. So for those who are paranoid, Overdrive is out as a source of eBooks.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rashkae

Simply wrong.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that is not wrong. On 3 occasions that I am aware of, updating the firmware on a Kobo with registration bypassed by changes to the database triggered a factory reset after the update.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that is not wrong. On 3 occasions that I am aware of, updating the firmware on a Kobo with registration bypassed by changes to the database triggered a factory reset after the update.

The method I posted has been tested with every firmware release since 4.4. It does not cause the trigger for Log Out. (The one kobo I had that *did* trigger a Log Out / failed sync on firmware update was actually caused by the version of Nickel Menu I had installed at the time.)

You are simply repeating assumptions made when no one verified and reproduced cause and effect... Shall we try to count how many times people with "resigered" Kobos have had to log out and re-sync?

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by rashkae

sideloadmode does have the big advantage that the Kobo will still be able to download and install it's own dictionaries and future updates.

Wait, you can still do automatic updates in sideload mode? I thought enabling it would remove the Sync button, in addition to the home screen and the ability to use the Kobo store. Is there a comprehensive list somewhere of what happens when you enable sideload mode?