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

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#31

Post by bitdivision » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:43 PM UTC

bitdivision wrote: post #9

I can't find a reference to it now, but I recently read something referencing the massive quantities of kindle data amazon give you when making a GDPR data subject access request. I think it was something like 100k rows of data for one user. Perhaps I should do that myself. Edit: You can request your kindle data here (UK version): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/privacycentral/dsar/preview.html

I still can't find the original post I read, but the guardian wrote about this recently [1]

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/03/amazon-ki...

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#32

Post by nikbackm » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:44 PM UTC

Just use airplane mode? Will also increase the battery life.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#33

Post by cpach » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:44 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…

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

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#34

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:44 PM UTC

paranorman wrote: post #19

BCharlie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great idea! It looks like the 'bad' stuff goes to unagi-na.amazon.com

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. I'll add this to my pihole config.

[deleted]

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#35

Post by BorisTheBrave » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:44 PM UTC

andrewzah wrote: post #24

This is a bit unfortunate, because the kindle paperwhite is just phenomenal. It's easy on my eyes and it's a godsend for traveling. I suppose the solution here is to just keep it in offline mode when not syncing books. [edit] as others have noted, it's possible to permanently use offline mode, and transfer books via usb cable. > Unfortunately, in order to use a non-Kindle application, I have to buy DRM-Free books. On…

> Each request also isn't sent as soon as it's generated. A number of these records are created and stored locally, then uploaded (note the sequence_number field). Even if a person is offline while reading, this data is stored and sent when reconnected.

Keeping it in offline mode doesn't help.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#36

Post by mrspeaker » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

paranorman wrote: post #3

Are these requests sent to a separate domain? I may have missed it in the article but it’d be great to know whether we could null route these without disrupting functionality.

I reckon it's time to stop working around all data collection bullshit. No more technical solutions to political problems.

Applying technical workarounds is still supporting a company, and is giving them a thumbs-up to keep at it.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#37

Post by jabroni_salad » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

mmrezaie wrote: post #2

How are the alternatives. Although i will miss my collection of books but I'm going to be in the market for the next ebook reader.

I have an Onyx Nova 2 and I like it quite a lot. It runs android and has access to the android ecosystem, so I can read my webnovels and mangas and even kindle books without needing to use any external applications like Calibre.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#38

Post by Despoisj » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

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.

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#39

Post by benologist » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

cpach wrote: post #33

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…

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

There are online converters for it all, the process is a little annoying but works fine and you can do it locally too with various tools:

https://www.epubconverter.com/epub-to-mobi-converter/

Re: Kindle collects a surprisingly large amount of data

#40

Post by calcifer » Tue, Aug 25, 2020, 1:46 PM UTC

I have a 2015 Kindle Paperwhite. I've put it on flight mode the day it arrived and it never went online again. Yes, loading new books takes slightly more effort (I use USB transfer with Calibre) but the peace of mind I get is more than worth it. Unlike OP, Amazon can neither track my reading habits (beyond my ebook purchases) nor delete anything from my Kindle.