NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Amazon Spying On Your Ebook Highlighting
Amazon should have presented users with a choice (participate or not?) when their highlight harvesting began. The broader issues of cloud-based storage of primary functionality such as notes and highlights are more complex, but Amazon definitely has failed the transparency test on this one. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator ----- Forwarded message from Dave Farber <dfarber@me.com> ----- Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 20:15:24 -0400 From: Dave Farber <dfarber@me.com> Subject: [IP] Amazon Spying On Your Ebook Highlighting Reply-To: dave@farber.net To: ip <ip@v2.listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: > From: Richard Forno <rforno@infowarrior.org> > Date: May 11, 2010 7:51:55 PM EDT > To: List Infowarrior <infowarrior@attrition.org> > Cc: Farber Dave <dave@farber.net> > Subject: Amazon Spying On Your Ebook Highlighting > > > Amazon Spying On Your Ebook Highlighting > > http://techdirt.com/articles/20100511/1018059377.shtml > > There have already been plenty of questions over who "owns" the ebooks you've bought, with stories of remotely deactivated books and remotely deactivated features -- neither of which happens when you have a real physical book. But there are also other concerns opened up by newly activated features. Apparently one new feature -- sent in by a few concerned readers -- is that Amazon will now remotely upload and store the user notes and highlights you take on your Kindle, which it then compiles into "popular highlights." > > I have no doubt that the feature provides some interesting data, but it's not clear that users realize their highlighting and notes are being stored and used that way. Amazon basically says there's no big privacy deal here, because the data is always aggregated. But it sounds like many users don't realize this is happening at all. Amazon says people can find out they added this feature by reading "forum posts and help pages" -- but it's not clear how many people actually do read those things. While I'm sure many people are fine with this, others might not be. And it once again highlights a key concern in that the "features" of your "book" can change over time. Your highlighting may have been yours in the past, but suddenly it becomes Amazon's with little notice. ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message -----