When Your e-Books Read You

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Posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 30, 2012 @01:28AM from the they-get-bored-and-put-you-down dept.

theodp writes "'Perhaps nothing will have as large an impact on advanced analytics in the coming year as the ongoing explosion of new and powerful data sources,' writes Bill Franks in Taming The Big Data Tidal Wave. And one of the hottest new sources of Big Data, reports the WSJ's Alexandra Alter in Your E-Book Is Reading You, is the estimated 40 million e-readers and 65 million tablets in use in the U.S. that are ripe for the picking by data scientists working for Amazon, Apple, Google, and Barnes & Noble. Some privacy watchdogs argue that e-book users should be protected from having their digital reading habits recorded. 'There's a societal ideal that what you read is nobody else's business,' says the EFF's Cindy Cohn."

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Obligatory Yakov Smirnoff by dkleinsc · 2012-06-30 01:37 · Score: 5, Funny

In Capitalist America, book reads you!

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I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
Why does it take a watchdog? by Teresita · 2012-06-30 01:40 · Score: 4, Funny

Someday some genius is going to have the bright idea of being the sole content provider who does not mine users' personal data for targeted ads. And people will sign up in droves for all the pent-up demand.
1. Re:Why does it take a watchdog? by CRCulver · 2012-06-30 01:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Someday some genius is going to have the bright idea of being the sole content provider who does not mine users' personal data for targeted ads. And people will sign up in droves for all the pent-up demand.
  
  Most users are not conscious that their data is being mined. And even of those who are and have a problem with it, a majority of those who voice their displeasure will go ahead and continue using the product nonetheless. The result is that users who really insist on privacy are such a small group that it is hard to build a business from them. "Droves" is not a word.
2. Re:Why does it take a watchdog? by Charliemopps · 2012-06-30 03:40 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I think you're missing the point. Often this data is worth more than the device itself. When you're reading books on Herpes management or something, and they use your internet connected TV to start flooding you with herpes treatment commercials... and now have you tied down buying medication at $100/month for the rest of your life... The value of knowing exactly what to put in front of your eyeballs quickly dwarfs the value of whatever device you're using to access the data their mining. We are likely to see, in the near future, free smartphones, ebooks, tablets, whatever... in exchange for mining all of our data. Eventually I doubt it will even be possible to buy a device that doesn't mine your data.
  
  Generally I'm a libertarian, but this is a rare case where the direction the free market will take us is a bad place indeed. The only real solution here is clearly written legislation. Unfortunately that is very unlikely. Sort of some tragic event happening and making national news (maybe pedophiles using this data for some nefarious purpose) I doubt it will ever come up in congress.
Re:But think of the advertisers by Lumpy · 2012-06-30 01:57 · Score: 5, Interesting

I am. That way I can buy one cheap to hack and make into a normal device.
Kind of like the Kindle "special offers edition" Smacked those ad's and other crud right out of there. Yes I shed a tear nightly for all the engineers that live on the streets due to my actions.

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Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Re:What's different about an ereader? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-30 02:08 · Score: 4, Interesting

Rented videos? Noted..
No, not noted http://epic.org/privacy/vppa/ by law. It's why Netflix pitched a hissy that they're not allowed to auto-publish your video rental history on Facebook http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/27/technology/netflix-facebook/index.htm
Re:What's different about an ereader? by RabidReindeer · 2012-06-30 02:27 · Score: 5, Informative

Rented videos? Noted. Subscribed to a magazine? Noted. Visited a web site? Noted. Searched for something? Noted.
Not even scratched the surface. How about "last page read", "text highlighted", "bookmarks taken", "time spent reading"? These are all things that B&N and Amazon know about your reading habits that weren't covered in your "don't worry-be happy" list.
It's one thing to notice what book the person across the room is reading, but standing behind them and taking notes is a whole level up from there.
we get the future we deserve by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-30 02:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

The more everyone decides to move to electronic devices we don't control - ebooks, iOS, most Android devices, WP7, Facebook, DVRs that report on our viewing habits, and many others - the more this reality will come to pass. Every single thing we ever with anything electronic will be tracked, logged, used to form advertizing profiles of us, and a government database mined to find da terrurusts.
We get the reality we chose to buy. Most people are choosing to live in this world by preferring those products over others without the privacy problems. Thus, it is the world we will get.
Re:What's different about an ereader? by BrokenHalo · 2012-06-30 02:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

...but standing behind them and taking notes is a whole level up from there.
Which is pretty much why I rip the DRM out of any book I buy (for futureproofing) and only use my reader device offline, using Calibre to manage content.