Your privacy is at risk with certain e-Book Readers!

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Amazon gets to ship everything to my Mother's house (different last name), and I use my first initial not full name.

...

Being slightly proactive gives me slightly more privacy.

So, instead of the Black Helicopters coming after you, you send them after your mother!

Nice. Real nice.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Okay......you make sense on those points.

Does this mean you never use those "loyalty" cards the supermarkets hand out also?
Cause if you do.........every purchase you make is recorded and followed.

My registrations with supermarkets have old phone numbers, false addresses, and a variant of my name that I only use for potential spammers, so I can recognize it when I get junk mail addressed to it.

Do you belong to Costco or Sam's? Ditto.
Do you buy anything from Amazon? triple ditto.

Dad belongs to Costco; we shop there. I've bought a few things from Amazon.

HOWEVER--none of them have access to my home, or information about how I use what I've purchased. There's a difference between a store knowing which books I've bought, and knowing how fast I read them and what page I'm on in each of them.

The point I"m trying to make, is that no matter what you do, unless you live in a cave, and leave no paper trail whatsoever, ........you're data, history, everything is out there.
'shrug. Its too late to be worrying about 'privacy'.

And because of that, there are data exchanges and purchases that I keep entirely off-record. There are topics I won't discuss online, and others I won't even discuss on a phone. There are purchases I only make in person, with cash.

I'm aware that modern life doesn't grant much privacy, but considering some of the abuses of information I've seen in government agencies, I take some effort to keep what's most important to me off the grid.

[brecklundin]

I sense many here need to read some of the fiction as well as the nature oriented works by Edward Abbey. Some call it seditious but others see it as reality and not burying your head in the sand about the reality and obvious direction such things will take. When was the last time info gathered on the activity of individuals was not used as a weapon to force compliance? Mccarthy is alive and well it would seem along with others of his ilk...he would be proud of many folks and their apathy.

Also for fun also read The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (now there is a pseudonym if I ever saw one!! still a fun read) and maybe even it's sequel The Dark River then follow it up with Jennifer Government by Max Berry. While it's fun, there is also a pretty obvious parallel to the world today. In fact Abbey was almost prescient in his view of the control of the corporations over the individual and about everything.

[troykm]

WOW

Talk about paranoia! Who cares if amazon looks at what your reading? Its only to make suggestions to you on books you might like, and they don't need to look at your kindle to see it, you bought it from them.

I think people are getting way way too paranoid these days over what details are out there. Remember people, the day you were born, your birth was registered so no matter what you do, your already in the system! RUN......run and flee

sorry, but i think we humans need to calm down a little

troykm

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by troykm

WOW

Talk about paranoia! Who cares if amazon looks at what your reading? Its only to make suggestions to you on books you might like, and they don't need to look at your kindle to see it, you bought it from them.

I don't care if Amazon looks at my reading. (Or, erm, Sony; I don't have a Kindle.) Amazon (or Sony) just wants to sell me more books.

I do care if they sell or give that information to organizations, including the government, that might use that data to make judgments about my life, and take action because of those judgments. I care if they decide I'm too immoral to raise children, if they decide I'm too anti-military to fly on airplanes, if they decide I'm too pro-gay-rights to get a passport.

I also think it's none of their business what I read, just like it's none of their business what my husband & I do in bed. The fact that it's not illegal doesn't mean it's reasonable for someone else to know just because they're interested.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Being slightly proactive gives me slightly more privacy.

[QUOTE=Elfwreck;713833]

Here's the thing.......having "slightly more privacy" is like being "just a little pregnant"

You either are, or your aren't. If you are, and IF they want.......the agencies can find the information they want.

@Elfwreck. I like you and respect your posts. I agree.....its none of the governments damn business what we do in our private lives, but........its a trade off.

The more "universal governmental assistance" that this country insists on, the less personal privacy we'll have.

What has this to do with Amazon? Nothing much.....its just another avenue to take.

I think wireless readers are what "the people" want. More and more will be cracking the market. Do you really think they won't do the same thing, whether its Sony, or any brand?

I don't.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Here's the thing.......having "slightly more privacy" is like being "just a little pregnant"

You either are, or your aren't. If you are, and IF they want.......the agencies can find the information they want.

No, no it isn't. My close friends know a helluva lot more about my private life than my parents do. My coworkers know next to nothing about my private life; that's varying degrees of private right there.

As far as agencies, well, there's nothing I can do to stop the FBI, NSA, MI5, random evil government agency, from finding me and knowing everything about me if they want to bother looking through IRS tax returns and assign real people to bothering with me.

The goal is to ensure that some server at Random Evil Corporation doesn't have a file with my current address and preference in toilet paper available for targeted marketing.

Originally Posted by ardeegee

So, instead of the Black Helicopters coming after you, you send them after your mother!

Nice. Real nice.

I'm not sure if this is a facetious remark, but last I checked neither Amazon nor AMEX had black helicopters. The government already has a nice fat file on me starting with my birth certificate and all tax returns, so I don't think they'll be bothering with Amazon shipping information.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

As far as agencies, well, there's nothing I can do to stop the FBI, NSA, MI5, random evil government agency, from finding me and knowing everything about me if they want to bother looking through IRS tax returns and assign real people to bothering with me.

Thank you. That's all I was trying to say.

The ability to do so is there..no one denies that.

The desire, so far, isn't. Whether you use a Kindle or a Sony or read on your computer.

What the future holds, has yet to be seen. However, I'm certainly not going to run around trying to scare the hell out of people for buying a Kindle and downloading books from Amazon.

[calvin-c]

There are two separate issues that the article doesn't differentiate. The article simply says they keep track of book purchases-I think that's patently false in at least one case as I simply don't see how Google can keep track of the books I purchase from Amazon. I'm not quite as certain that Amazon can't track books I purchase from Google though-if I load them on a Kindle. (Note: I don't have a Kindle so this is speculation. I've not heard anybody claim they do track them, but that syncing makes me wonder.)

So, the two issues are whether or not they track the books you purchase (or searches you make) from them, and whether or not they track (or try to track) *all* the books you purchase. In the first case, I don't have a problem. If I don't want a store to know what *I* purchase from them then I don't give them my name & pay cash. (If I can't then I decide, each time, how I'll handle it. Radio Shack, for instance, insists I give them my name/phone number on every purchase. I consider it a real shame that their records are now so inaccurate (sarcasm) because I've given them several phony names over the years. Not lately though-lately I've stuck to one name because there are two Radio Shack stores in our town. So the one I buy from now shows quite a few purchases made by the manager of the other store.)

Anyway, as I was saying, I don't have a real big problem with a store tracking the purchases I choose to make from them. I think they should be up front with it, but most ebook stores are. Tracking (or attempting to track) what I buy from other sources is, IMO, an invasion of my privacy.

So relating this to use of a club membership or loyalty card is, IMO, incorrect-except when the furor is over the 1st issue, about them keeping track of what you purchase from them. And anybody who believe that mail order (for want of a better term) doesn't keep track of who orders what, is nuts. The use to which they put that info is something else-but all the EFF was reporting was that they collect it.

BTW, a tinfoil hat attracts attention. If the PTB see you wearing one they'll find other ways to monitor you-but a snowhat with an inner lining of tinfoil works just as well, without attracting unwanted attention. (At least during winter.)