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Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

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Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#181

Post by rtkwe »

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 think the reason to send a sync every page turn is you don’t know if the device will be in contact when any alternate sync trigger happens so to keep it mostly up to date the best option is to constantly sync whenever you have connectivity.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#182

Post by gizmo »

thdrdt wrote: post #131
jacquesm wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't really matter does it? You don't collect data without consent, period. Why is that so hard to understand? Why don't developers ever push back against this sort of thing? Collectively we build this stuff, we are not 'soldiers following orders' which makes us responsible for what we create. The current actual use is not relevant. Consent and the possible uses are relevant.

I think your comment is unfair. Every webserver logs the IP address and the URL visited. Do you think most people know this? Do deverlopers push against this?

GDPR actually forces all websites to carefully keep track of what gets logged and for how long these logfiles are retained. So yes, legislators are pushing back against the common practice of logging everything just cause.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#183

Post by falcolas »

neiman wrote: post #172
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.

If I can't think of a way to abuse me by having my data, it doesn't mean that someone else doesn't. I would really rather avoid all this discussion by them not having my data to begin with.

If you know of an alternative that offers client-side encrypted sync, I'd love to hear it. I'm considering alternatives to the Kindle as well, even if for reasons unrelated to the analytics.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#184

Post by aww_dang »

Amazon loses when users take the discounted kindle, never enable wifi and source books from libgen. These users would be addressing their privacy concerns and saving money. Perhaps it isn't the largest market, but Amazon isn't exactly incentivizing participation with these privacy policies.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#185

Post by sloshnmosh »

I’ve found similar concerns in an official church scripture app which I will not name.

It was sending an enormous amount of data back to the church including what the user was reading and for how long, everything the user highlighted or bookmarked etc.

It was enough to really question the need for such data.

I really believe that if that data served a legitimate purpose to the functionality of the app (which I’m sure a lot of it did) then the data should have been saved locally on the users device.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#186

Post by falcolas »

technofiend wrote: post #178
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…

The aggravating bit - beyond the fact that Amazon doesn't let you opt out, is that this sometimes affects performance. Switching over to the kindle app occasionally hangs. Killing the app and restarting it usually works, but there are times when I have to go to airplane mode and kill and restart the app just to open a book!

You can opt out, at least on the physical devices.

But yeah, the Kindle iOS app is crap in many ways - the one that bugs me is how hot it makes my phone. I mean, WTF?

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#187

Post by rtkwe »

ryzvonusef wrote: post #116
vaylian wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

eInk is a lot nicer for reading books than LCD screens. The downside is that eInk currently only supports black-and-white and turning pages is roughly only as fast as turning the page of a book. Also, battery life is counted in days (and sometimes weeks) and not in hours.

> The downside is that eInk currently only supports black-and-white E-ink Kaleido with 4096 colors at 100 ppi are available commercially since past few weeks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiCOheb1jo

Those are really neat, the big issue is they’re still pretty low saturation so the images don’t look as good as an actual LED/LCD screen.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#188

Post by neiman »

falcolas wrote: post #183
neiman wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can't think of a way to abuse me by having my data, it doesn't mean that someone else doesn't. I would really rather avoid all this discussion by them not having my data to begin with.

If you know of an alternative that offers client-side encrypted sync, I'd love to hear it. I'm considering alternatives to the Kindle as well, even if for reasons unrelated to the analytics.

I wish I'd knew:-)

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#189

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

After I put Pihole on the network, wife's kindle was almost immediately the biggest offender.

That said, the article appears to list activity type ( which is problematic in itself -- time stamp + person is reading now ). I can see a legitimate use for it, but I also hate the idea of being profiled in that way.

To be perfectly honest, Kindle does not seem to pull more than average Android phone ( thought that is problematic in itself ).

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#190

Post by gambler »

falcolas wrote: post #124
neiman wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you do lost of those things by sending encrypted data to Amazon, and getting back the encrypted data from them? They act as a storage in most cases, not as a server, no?

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.

>You'd have to figure out some kind of secure key sharing mechanism between phones, tablets, web browsers, and e-readers.

Yeah, it's not like Amazon can afford security experts to work on this or anything.

>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 an ignorant position that has been proven wrong over, and over, and over again. Private data should be secure by default, because otherwise eventually someone will figure out how to abuse it. This is a lesson form bazillion fraud schemes and social engineering hacks everyone in tech should have learned by now.

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