They Know What You’re Reading
Right as I am embracing e-books and seeing their ease and virus-containing beauty, I read something like this and feel completely creeped out. Kindle — and likely other e-book readers — are tracking what you’re reading, when you’re reading, how long you’re reading, what you’re highlighting, the notes you took, the words you’ve looked up, the segments you’ve copied.
Some of this information I’ve willingly posted online. You know a bunch of the books I read because I talk about them. If I remember (maybe a quarter of the time?), I log books I’ve liked on GoodReads. Or leave an Amazon review. But, of course, that is under my control. I can decide to post or not post. To say what I’ve highlighted or not.
It’s a reminder of how much we trade in exchange for convenience; though, of course, in this case, you’re already paying for the service by paying for the book. So the information they’re taking is an additional, hidden cost of the transaction.
3 comments
Eh. I don’t really care. I update Goodreads every time I read a book — for my own future reference, to share book ideas/opinions with friends, and to assist my book club with monthly selections — so most of this information is already readily available through that site. (I understand that it’s now owned by Amazon.)
Should I care? I don’t really see the harm in Someone knowing this information about what I read.
My tolerance level for tracking what I’m reading is pretty high. I honestly don’t care if they know what I’m reading. Hell – I put it out there on my own. However, I do prefer the physical book to e-book. I get an odd satisfaction out of actually physically reading a book. ::shrugs::
All they can track for me is that I really don’t like to pay for ebooks. 🙂