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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

#201

Post by sumtechguy »

Despoisj wrote: post #38

As a former Kindle developer, I can say that most of what's mentioned in this article are metrics used to understand how the features are used (bookmarks, highlights, dictionnary, etc.), how much they are used, and in which country. This allows the teams to focus on features that are actively used, and sometimes lead to discontinuing features that see little to no use. Hope that helps.

They have collected large amounts of data from pretty much day one on those devices.

Back when they had a cell phone in them. I was standing behind a guy who was supporting it. "Uh lets bring up where you are at? It says you are 10 miles off the coast of miami?...." "oh yeah I am calling from my yacht" "do you see any cell towers?" "no" "It kinda needs those to work. I am surprised I got the location data."

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#202

Post by falcolas »

breakfastduck wrote: post #76
Despoisj wrote: post #38

As a former Kindle developer, I can say that most of what's mentioned in this article are metrics used to understand how the features are used (bookmarks, highlights, dictionnary, etc.), how much they are used, and in which country. This allows the teams to focus on features that are actively used, and sometimes lead to discontinuing features that see little to no use. Hope that helps.

As many people here have echoed - this boils down to the fact the data is being captured without an opt out. I don't doubt the developers are using it for 'morally acceptable' purposes, but I don't trust Amazon not to abuse that data later down the line! I really don't feel that anyone needs to know precisely what pages I have viewed in a specific book.

The kindle e-readers do offer an opt-out from the metrics collection. It can be triggered from the website or the device itself.

That it's an opt-out and not opt-in is not a good thing, but it can be opted out of on the e-readers.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#203

Post by gnusty_gnurc »

moksha256 wrote: post #60
Despoisj wrote: post #38

As a former Kindle developer, I can say that most of what's mentioned in this article are metrics used to understand how the features are used (bookmarks, highlights, dictionnary, etc.), how much they are used, and in which country. This allows the teams to focus on features that are actively used, and sometimes lead to discontinuing features that see little to no use. Hope that helps.

Yeah I came here to say the same. I'm about as tin-foil-paranoid-privacy-all-the-things as they come, but the "invasive" data mentioned in the post don't seem particularly invasive to me, and collecting that data seems perfectly appropriate for the purposes you mentioned. With all that said, I do dream of a PINE64 E Ink device (or something that's open and hackable).

Yea analytics like this are really what I find to be so important, as a developer.

How much time and frustration do I potentially waste on something that no one ends up using?

Things like this are very useful and it's strange to me that people aren't sympathetic to that perspective.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#204

Post by AlotOfReading »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #53
anilakar wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to deal with the .epub conversion was the main reason I ditched my Voyage and got a Kobo Aura One instead.

Why ditch a device just for that reason? Again, the OP assumes that one will transfer books to the device over USB for privacy’s sake. In this case, creating a shell wrapper around cp to automatically convert any EPUB to MOBI upon copying the file (naming the command, say, kindlecp) is trivial.

Conversion can occasionally barf and completely screw up the formatting. It's annoying to have to go back and re-convert with different settings for a problem that's non-existent when native support exists.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#205

Post by ghkklj »

pwinnski wrote: post #167
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 have also owned three generations of Kindle! Like you, I've never taken any of them online. Never supply a wifi connection during setup, and instead immediately engage airplane mode. USB transfer is easy with something like Calibre, which also handily converts ePub to Mobi for Kindle use. It used to be that you could buy Kindle books and download them to your computer for transfer to the Kindle via USB, but they se…

I tried to do this with a recent paperwhite but some features seemed to require registration - the main one I cared about being "collections". Had to make a fresh amazon account, register it, then put it into aeroplane mode never to be reconnected.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#206

Post by falcolas »

neiman wrote: post #86
dimitrios1 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't. You have 100% freedom to not work for Amazon. Don't buy a kindle. Don't use a kindle.

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.

FWIW, the website providing this breakdown also collects analytics data without a warning. So, there's that to consider as well.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#207

Post by [deleted] »

criddell wrote: post #161
falcolas wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some books sold in China are edited for that market. If you highlight a passage that shouldn't be in your book, you could be in trouble.

[deleted]

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#208

Post by falcolas »

gvjddbnvdrbv wrote: post #112
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 a matter of time before devices come with 5G data connections...

AKA, the original whispersync.

Yup, this was once a thing - you didn't need wifi for sync or downloading books at all.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#209

Post by danShumway »

falcolas wrote: post #150
BCharlie wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Will you also be updating and noting that the requests to Wikipedia and Bing are for explicit customer-benefiting features? Might be worth noting that you can opt out of their data collection (on the e-reader, at a minimum) as well. Settings > Device Options > Advanced Options > Privacy or in the device management console in your account on amazon.com

The text in question:

> Highlighting or tapping any word will send the requests with the text to Bing Translate and Wikipedia, as well as back to Amazon.

Is there a reason why that text needs to be sent before the user clicks the "translate" button? Is there a reason why it needs to be sent to Amazon?

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#210

Post by falcolas »

mikro2nd wrote: post #134
gvjddbnvdrbv wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only a matter of time before devices come with 5G data connections...

...which would require a valid SIM. So just don't add one. If the device comes with a pre-inserted/hardwired/virtual SIM, well... several countries in the world require KYC-style registration of the SIM owner before networks are allowed to activate the SIM, so there'd still be an opt-out path for the user in such countries. eta: My point being: Now you're in a twisty little maze full of corner cases, all different. N…

FWIW, the original kindle used a cellular connection to do position syncing and book downloading. No user-provided SIM needed.
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