lemmydividebyzeroHow I Reversed Amazon's Kindle Web Obfuscation Because Their App Sucked
I find it puzzling that people are OK with allowing a mammoth, regularly hostile corporation know exactly what books they’re reading as well as the exact details of their reading habits. Everything is accessible to Amazon - when and how often you access a book, how fast you read and when you linger on or return to a page. I wonder when they’ll implement camera-based eye tracking so they know what word you’re on?
The same public libraries that vigorously defend the privacy of our reading lists are simultaneously fine outsourcing all ebook access to Amazon where there’s no expectation of privacy at all. Epubs at those libraries are now so well hidden they’re not even mentioned anymore and access is buried multiple levels deep in the mandatory Libby app.
I love the ease of access and convenience of ebooks, but paper books are becoming more and more appealing by comparison.
I sideload my own books and then turn off the internet on the Kindle. Other than knowing what books I have, are they still able to monitor all those other things?
I ask because I don’t completely understand some of this internet networking stuff. The other day I turned off my router while I was watching a video on YouTube and the video kept playing with no interruption or lag while I thought I had turned off the wifi in my house. I guess we can’t turn it off anymore? Or was it able to keep playing because it was cached?
Timestamps on activities you take can be combined with other data points to figure out things like your location, what people are nearby you, and what you are doing at that moment. These data points are created frequently and can be reviewed actively or retroactively.
That data is collected and sold by data brokers, who then sell it to law enforcement and government, as well as advertisers and other companies.
AI is very good at finding patterns in data points, and is accelerating the usability of all this data thats been collected.
I simply don’t like the idea of being targeted or used, so ive tried to minimize data collection. I have a custom ROM on my phone and have linux on my computers. I dont have accounts with companies I dont trust. Sometimes if I have to make an account anyways, I’ll use fake information and a vpn.