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Amazon Is Collecting Your Kindle Highlights & Notes
TechDirt catches Amazon playing fast and loose with data that consumers may think is private — namely, their highlights and notes entered into Kindle books. "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.' ... [This situation] 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."
As a Kindle 2 owner who just had his Kindle updated to 2.5 firmware (which has this feature), I can tell you that this feature is off by default. In order for Amazon to actually share your highlights (of course, who knows if they're collecting it silently in the background; it's their system after all), you have to actively turn on this feature.
I've also seen Kindle for iPad. I don't recall whether this feature was on by default, but it is rather prominently displayed on their relatively simple options menu. If you have privacy concerns, it's fairly simple to turn it off.
Kindle User's Guide (pdf), page 99. Notes and highlights have been backed up to Amazon's servers since the v1 launch, and you can easily turn off sync of your own data.
You can enable or disable automatic backup by following the steps below:
1. If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home button.
2. Press the Menu button.
3. Move the 5-way to underline "Settings" and press to select.
4. Press the Menu button.
5. Move the 5-way to underline "Disable/Enable Annotations Backup" and press to select.
Why should I care that Amazon builds an aggregate summary?
Oh wait, they do.
That must burst your bubble.
They do. The feature is off by default.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
But it is an /optional/ feature, that they put out a press release for, put a big message on the amazon kindle forums about and are sending out an updated user's manual with. It is even a feature that defaults to off. They are telling people about it and letting them not turn it on. Otherwise it'd be terrible.
It'd make sense as a complaint if they didn't share what they were doing. There's also the option of not updating the software if you care so much about keeping the kindle exactly as it is.
The kindle store has problems, that doesn't mean that everything that amazon does with the kindle is a problem.
They aren't getting the info without the permission. It's an opt in feature.
OK, I'll go ahead and admit that: It is cool and it does have uses. However it has problems, too.
To give a very very specific example: Amazon has recently suspended my account. It's not that they told me about it - it's just that my password suddenly stopped working, and when going through the password reset process I found the new one wasn't working either. Only when I contacted them through their contact form did they actually tell me that they suspended the account. They said they were investigating something with another similar account which had a problem. They didn't tell me what they were investigating, they didn't tell me how long they were planning to investigate, just asked me for "patience". The email can't be replied to either. To give some context: I checked my records, and I have been buying stuff from them since at least 1997, as far as I am aware they never had the slightest problem with me in that time.
I did some web searching and it seems that this sort of thing is something Amazon does fairly often, they seem to have some sort of system which they use to try and detect fraud and apparently it triggers on some rather weird things (lives at the same address as someone they had problems with in the past, has the same last name as someone they have problems with ... stuff like that). Of course they are entitled to chose who they do business with (and so it should be) so there is really no recourse against this.
As you can imagine I'm fairly pissed at them, but everything I bought from them over the years is still available to me, everything I own I can still use. There are other suppliers of books, mp3s and electronics - if they don't want my business I can and will take it elsewhere.
I'm not sure how much all this would affect me if I owned a Kindle, but I don't think I would want to buy one now. (Well, it's not like they'd let me anyway ...)
I'll take this as a reminder not to entrust anything important to "the cloud" and continue not to buy DRM products.
You're NOT automatically opted-in. Holy hell people... it's an OBVIOUS option in the settings menu that you must turn ON. I own a Kindle and I am not opted-into this. People here keep acting like there's no way you can keep your kindle from updating/phoning home/changing your settings. Now hear this: YOU CAN TURN OFF THE WIRELESS AND NOTHING CHANGES! Just turn it on when you want to download a book and turn it back off when you're done. Geez people...