One thing that sometimes comes up in regards to Kindles and other ebook readers is how some people really dislike the idea of their reading habits being tracked and monitored by the likes of Amazon and other companies.
A lot of people don’t question or care if some algorithm is tracking everything they read. In fact some find computer-generated reading suggestions helpful to find new authors and books they might not have come across otherwise. Tracking also helps with things like syncing across devices and apps.
But some people don’t like the idea of someone spying on their reading preferences and tracking their reading habits.
Some people go out of their way to never enable wireless settings on their device in order to stay completely off the radar.
In some sense it seems a bit paranoid, but then again everyone should have the right to reading privacy, to not have they’re data and reading history tracked if they choose.
The best thing would be to have the option to turn off data tracking or chose specifically what can and cannot be tracked from the settings menu on all ebook readers and apps, but that’s unlikely to ever happen without some outside intervention because companies don’t want to give up their free access to your data.
Kobo does have the option to turn off sharing data related to features you use, but that’s just a small percentage of the data they’re monitoring.
What do you think? How important is reading privacy when it comes to reading ebooks? Do you care if your reading devices and apps track your every reading move?
I’ve used app eReaders for several years, and just last year purchased a Kindle Paperwhite 4. I’d much prefer that my reading choices and habits not be transferred/tracked by Amazon, but am not willing to go to the length of turning off wireless access in order to achieve that.
I agree that the option should be included in the settings of all eReaders, but the reality is, that will never happen…
I don’t really understand if Amazon is tracking my reading habits.
If they do, they are doing a bad job!
The ads on my Kindle are most times a romantic novel!
Both Amazon and Goodreads are doing a decent job in recommending me the next read though. And I can say I bought directly the next book.
But the human that created sponsored ads on Kindle missed a huge opportunity! And whomever decided that worth keeping…it’s a pitiful creature!
No, I don’t have a US credit card anymore…
I think it makes a lot of sense actually. Books that you like you can find and buy without any assistance. It’s all the pulp you’d never even consider reading they want you to buy.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/81046-bibliotheca-calls-out-amazon-for-meddling-in-the-library-e-book-market.html
Amazon clearly tracks reading of its products and those of others, including those provided in Kindle format to users of the Overdrive system available in many public library systems, in order to further their business interest.
As noted in the recently published book, Zucked,” about Facebook, the terms of use for Facebook or to acquire Kindle format books through Amazon are written entirely to protect what Amazon imagines will help the company and not at all to protect users. Not at all. There is almost no existing law to protect standardize usefully what your privacy or other rights are against the interests of corporate behemoths such as Amazon.
I don’t care at all if the organizations monitor my reading habits. It’s just not a big deal to me. I mean, what will it amount to in the end? One day, we will all be gone from the earth and we will only exist as other people’s memories. I read tons of books on a wide variety of topics and themes,non-fiction and fiction. What importance is it in the great scheme of things which books I have read? I just think that there are many more important things to worry about in this world while we are here. As you mentioned Nathan,I am one of those that enjoys the reading habits tracking as a mechanism for new book and author discoveries. That just makes my reading more enriched and enjoyable.
I agree, this just isn’t something I care about.
There actually is a privacy setting for Kindle now…only it seems to limit very little tracking.
I wish they would allow total opt outs.
If Google, Facebook and Amazon combined data they would know more about you than your family, friends and/or significant others do.
If Amazon or Kobo were the only places where my activity was being tracked, i might have a problem with it, but since I’m tracked with every keystroke, what’s a couple more? At least this is about my resding interests. And truth is, I’m not all that interesting except as a consumer.
When I read this article headline, I thought at first about my privacy from those around me. I love my Kindles and Kobos because noone has to know that perhaps I’m reading erotica or a kids book or a classic that everyone else read in high school. The computer in an Amazon office kniws, but the people around me don’t, and I prefer that privacy.
I’ve already sold all my privacy down the river far enough that I may as well let them have my reading data, too. In principle, yes, it would be ideal to have (or be more easily allowed) reading privacy, but in practice, I’m just so exhausted by other issues that I don’t care very much. Maybe that’s what they’re counting on.
If I was more fussed about it and still wanted to digitally read, I suppose I’d jailbreak my device, never turn on wifi, and sideload content obtained via VPN. There’s probably a break in the privacy chain there somewhere, but it seems the most secure option other than buying physical books only with cash.
To me, crucial but like everything else one is forced to compromise or do without.
I will not use wifi (I live in the bush anyway).
I am off ebook readers now anyway too, with a full HD screen providing better experience for reading.
what I miss is the lack from all the ebook providers of a Linux desktop app to purchase and download books. I would compromise for that, but they are not interested in us 2% of users.
I doubt that will change any time in the near future. Perhaps when Microsoft or Amazon take control over Linux users they will bring us into their fold.
If I lived in the city and used my ebook reader, I would disconnect the wifi antenna if I could.
When I was in high school about 1955 I always carried the paperback I was reading in my back pocket. I was never without it. One day a teacher spotted “Peyton Place”, which really wasn’t an off-color book but that was it’s reputation. I was sent to the principal’s office and he sent me home and said my parents could come to school tomorrow and get me back in.
All that for carrying a book in my pocket that they thought was “racy”. Anyway my Dad came with me the next day and explained to the principal that both my parents had read it and had given it to me to read and that what I read was none of their business. They compromised with the agreement that I wouldn’t carry books in my pocket, which I didn’t do for about a week and then went back to carrying them.
Anyway, my point is that what we read can be a problem in the eyes of others. I personally don’t worry about it much but I sympathize with those who do.
I can imagine an employer getting access to his employees reading lists somehow and using that against them.
Barry
I agree with you on personal sharing. I’d be all up in arms if someone was sharing lists of what I read with people in my life, too — but with this random data tracking, meh, doesn’t bother me. I’m so used to being all over the internet in various forms over the years already. I think everyone is monitored by this point unless they mainly really do stay offline.
I connect my e-readers to the Internet as little as possible.
I very much like the mystery of people not knowing what I am reading. I do not ask what they are reading on their phones. I am left alone to read and not always being asked what the book was about or why I was reading a certain book.
I was looking into this mostly because I know people who would like to use an e-reader, especially with libraries physically closed. They are not the sort of folks who remember to turn off wifi, location, log in so google or whomever can track everything. They go with the defaults.
They need simple ways of saying if they want to share or not and that is what it should be.
As for all the people on this thread who don’t seem to care, mostly because they have given up, I find that totally depressing and sad that even of the EFF site, that is the majority view.
This does not mean that what you say should be the way it is. Even if 1 out of 100 feels they should be private, they should be allowed.
The fact that so few people care just means no one will fight for it.
I did not see any mention of the detail of what can be tracked:
Where are you in the book right now?
Did you go back x pages, reread, how long did you spend on a page, did you skip. These folks want all this information, even if a lot of it is trash (did that person just read slowly or did the fact that they got up every minute to keep the kids from killing each other slow them down). Eventually they will know when the reader is in your hands, when it is put down, are you moving at the same time….
Maybe most everyone on this thread is just some bot…?