Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data • Hacker News Board

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#151

Post by neiman » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:47 PM UTC

jjcon wrote: post #133

neiman wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Privacy LARPers are a tiny segment of the market, the average person doesn’t really care if their ‘usage of the highlighter function is tracked’ If so, why don't they loudly advertise the data collection and do it only with opt-in? It's not that the average user doesn't care if they're tracked, it's that they're not aware that they're being tracked.

You think companies should loudly advertise something people don’t care about? That doesn’t make sense. Plenty of companies are quite transparent about their data collection practices (set up an Apple device recently?) Most people are aware of data collection, they care more about functionality though.

> You think companies should loudly advertise something people don’t care about?

It's not what I said.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#152

Post by falcolas » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #147

falcolas wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd have to figure out some kind of secure key sharing mechanism between phones, tablets, web browsers, and e-readers. Or, you can trust that a position in a book (bookmarks, notes, etc.) is not sensitive information that really needs to be encrypted. This is my - perhaps overly pragmatic - position.

I think the books you read and your annotations should definitely be protected. Imagine reading about Tienanmen Square in China.

Simply purchasing/owning a book on that topic would be enough for an oppressive government like China, they wouldn't need to know where in the book you were exactly.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#153

Post by trey-jones » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

BEEdwards wrote: post #87

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #21

I have quite often seen people here and on other tech forums assume that purchasing a Kindle means being locked into Amazon's ecosystem, giving up personal details, and having the risk that your books might be deleted. But you don't have to use the Kindle's internet connectivity: I have owned three generations of Kindle, and with each one I activated airplane mode the second I unboxed the device and I never turned ai…

Why buy a kindle at all then? Any cheap budget tablet can read ebooks and stay off the internet.

Kindle is just a great reading device. The only feature that I _might_ consider using that requires connectivity is the Wikipedia lookup, and the verdict so far is that Airplane mode is more valuable than that.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#154

Post by Hitton » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:48 PM UTC

BCharlie wrote: post #127

falcolas wrote: post #109

This statement - "None of these requests appear to be used for customer features like last read location." - bugs me, because it's fairly obviously false, and detracts from the real concerns. To sync a "last read page" across devices, you need to send a location back to Amazon. It's also appropriate to tie a location to a device, so you can pick the appropriate device to sync your position from. And, when you highlig…

I mention that the data that appears to be used for those purposes is sent again in a separate request to a separate end point, so we have two types of requests: last read location, and reading analytics. Sorry it wasn't clear, I'll try to improve the wording.

I liked the article. If you are gonna update it, please consider also mentioning technical aspect. Frankly, Amazon snooping on users is to be expected, but short mention of app for which platform have you analysed using which tools would be welcome addition.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#155

Post by criddell » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

alongreyber wrote: post #49

cpach wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What formats does it handle? Can it handle EPUB for example?

For this I recommend Calibre: https://calibre-ebook.com/ It will convert any format of E-Book to a compatible format for the Kindle (usually MOBI) and allows you to upload it directly. I use it often and it's an amazing piece of software!

It works pretty well except for the latest generation of Kindle DRM. AFAIK, it hasn't been cracked yet. There are workarounds but the workaround result in a lower quality book.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#156

Post by stormdennis » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

So one way to avoid all data gathering might be to keep your Kindle on airplane mode permanently and load/remove books via USB. Battery would last longer too. It also kills ads on the cheaper version of the Kindle.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#157

Post by neiman » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

shmel wrote: post #132

neiman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I would have known that by buying Kindle I end up working for Amazon, I indeed wouldn't have bought one. It's deception. Please put on the box a big warning, "THIS DEVICE COLLECTS YOUR DATA", similar to those on cigarette boxes.

Are you genuinely surprised at this point? Pretty much all big tech companies were caught outright lying about user data collection. Why would you assume by default they don't try to get as much as possible? They are all based on ML, of course they do. A year or two ago Amazon was swearing that humans don't listen to Alexa conversations until we learned they actually do. IIRC Amazon tried to backpedal: "of course the…

Of course I'm not surprised, but I refuse to accept this as normal.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#158

Post by kilroy123 » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #21

I have quite often seen people here and on other tech forums assume that purchasing a Kindle means being locked into Amazon's ecosystem, giving up personal details, and having the risk that your books might be deleted. But you don't have to use the Kindle's internet connectivity: I have owned three generations of Kindle, and with each one I activated airplane mode the second I unboxed the device and I never turned ai…

I now do the same. I never take it off airplane mode unless I send a PDF or something to the device.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#159

Post by whynotminot » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:50 PM UTC

kofejnik wrote: post #149

filesystem wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the developers take the egregious step of nerfing airplane mode, you can still "opt out" by not giving the device credentials for your WiFi network.

Only until you come into range of any open WiFi which is every public place everywhere

Is that Kindle that promiscuous that it will literally connect to any open AP without prompting?

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#160

Post by enchiridion » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

jjcon wrote: post #130

enchiridion wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remarkable is open and hackable. https://github.com/reHackable

It also costs more than an iPad and has terrible response times

Yep, pretty consistent for e-ink.

Still, I think it has the best value proposition for an e-ink tablet at the moment, but I'd love to be proven wrong.