Amazon Silk = Evil?

[Mux157]

By now everyone and their dog have probably heard about Amazon's new Kindle Fire. One thing that is being touted as revolutionary or at least 'smart' is the fact that they pre-munge website data for you to accelerate browsing.

Perusing their Silk privacy policy, you get interesting nuggets such as:

"Personally identifiable information collected through Amazon Silk is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice, which is incorporated and made a part of this Agreement "

"All text you enter in Amazon Silk’s address bar is sent to a default search engine. The initial default search engine is selected by Amazon Silk, and we may change the default search engine in the future without notice to you."

"Amazon Silk also temporarily logs web addresses -- known as uniform resource locators (“URLs”) -- for the web pages it serves and certain identifiers, such as IP or MAC addresses, to troubleshoot and diagnose Amazon Silk technical issues. We generally do not keep this information for longer than 30 days."

"You may terminate the Agreement at any time by uninstalling the Software or ceasing your use of Amazon Silk. In addition, your rights under the Agreement will automatically terminate without notice from Amazon if you fail to comply with any term of the Agreement or if Amazon discontinues Amazon Silk.

In case of any termination, you must cease all use of Amazon Silk, including the Software. Amazon may also terminate your right to use Amazon Silk at any time, and in such event may modify it to make it inoperable."

Couple of observations here:

Amazon basically will now be able to track your web-browsing habits, tie this to your profile (which they have on file and is linked to your CC, home address, etc) and use their own search engine to help them build / sell an information profile.

If, for any reason, you break their 'agreement' (no word on what that exactly constitutes) they can brick your Kindle Fire.

I think I'll pass...

-Mux

[trelawrence]

Have you read your BB BIS/BES End User agreement? Let me know if you need a link.

LOL.

[avt123]

Interesting. Well I am sure someone will load stock Honeycomb on this thing, and I will be sure to grab it right away.

Many companies have sketchy user agreements.

[trelawrence]

Originally Posted by avt123

Interesting. Well I am sure someone will load stock Honeycomb on this thing, and I will be sure to grab it right away.

Many companies have sketchy user agreements.

Not to mention, they fill those "agreements" with unenforceable stuff to scare people. If you really wanna be scared, read the BIS agreement.

If it can be rooted, I will get it. They had me at "Hello."

[DaveTheA]

"Evil" might be a little harsh...to be truthful, I'm not as concerned by this sort of thing on the part of corporations who just want to sell me stuff, as I am about government bodies who may want to do who-knows-what [undoubtedly 'for my own good', or maybe 'for the children'] with all that data. But then, given the roundheeled attitude most corporations have in the face of government requirements, it behooves us all to guard our privacy carefully...and maybe even pay attention to all those EULA docs once in a while.

I can see why people might want one of the Amazon things...it's cheap, and if you're an Amazon customer already it kinda makes sense. But nothing that provides Internet access is totally safe...sooner or later people will learn. Maybe.

[Mux157]

The thing that bugs me is that they can basically brick your unit without the user's consent. I don't recall RIM having that ability for the PB but maybe I'm wrong :-) Either way, they get a free peek at what their customers browse for, listen / watch and store. Anything I stick on a PB will remain there (security risk or not) without third parties having access.

-Mux

[bb-bandit]

Originally Posted by Mux157

By now everyone and their dog have probably heard about Amazon's new Kindle Fire. One thing that is being touted as revolutionary or at least 'smart' is the fact that they pre-munge website data for you to accelerate browsing.

Perusing their Silk privacy policy, you get interesting nuggets such as:

"Personally identifiable information collected through Amazon Silk is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice, which is incorporated and made a part of this Agreement "

"All text you enter in Amazon Silk’s address bar is sent to a default search engine. The initial default search engine is selected by Amazon Silk, and we may change the default search engine in the future without notice to you."

"Amazon Silk also temporarily logs web addresses -- known as uniform resource locators (“URLs”) -- for the web pages it serves and certain identifiers, such as IP or MAC addresses, to troubleshoot and diagnose Amazon Silk technical issues. We generally do not keep this information for longer than 30 days."

"You may terminate the Agreement at any time by uninstalling the Software or ceasing your use of Amazon Silk. In addition, your rights under the Agreement will automatically terminate without notice from Amazon if you fail to comply with any term of the Agreement or if Amazon discontinues Amazon Silk.

In case of any termination, you must cease all use of Amazon Silk, including the Software. Amazon may also terminate your right to use Amazon Silk at any time, and in such event may modify it to make it inoperable."

Couple of observations here:

Amazon basically will now be able to track your web-browsing habits, tie this to your profile (which they have on file and is linked to your CC, home address, etc) and use their own search engine to help them build / sell an information profile.

If, for any reason, you break their 'agreement' (no word on what that exactly constitutes) they can brick your Kindle Fire.

I think I'll pass...

-Mux

Sounds like what the U.S. gov't wants to do to everyone of us nowadays and everyone loves the current administration....so this shouldn't be any problem for users.

[xandermac]

Doesn't RIM do the exact same thing? All data passes thru BIS and is compressed for us, im assuming that RIM collect or can collect all the same data.

[Mux157]

Only if you're on BIS on a phone or if you tether your PB through your phone. If I surf the web on my PB at home it goes directly through my provider. In the case of the KF, it'll *first* go through Amazon Silk where it'll get munched / analysed before pushing the optimized content out.

-Mux

[trelawrence]

Originally Posted by Mux157

The thing that bugs me is that they can basically brick your unit without the user's consent. I don't recall RIM having that ability for the PB but maybe I'm wrong :-) Either way, they get a free peek at what their customers browse for, listen / watch and store. Anything I stick on a PB will remain there (security risk or not) without third parties having access.

-Mux

Please quote the exact line where they threaten to brick your device.

[mystic205]

wow..isnt this a little dramatic?..

Pretty much any EULA says "if you breathe we can sue"....

[trelawrence]

Originally Posted by mystic205

wow..isnt this a little dramatic?..

Pretty much any EULA says "if you breathe we can sue"....

Exactly... LOL.

Still waiting on the brick quote.

[TBone4eva]

Originally Posted by xandermac

Doesn't RIM do the exact same thing? All data passes thru BIS and is compressed for us, im assuming that RIM collect or can collect all the same data.

Except RIM does it in such a way, that it actually seems to slow page rendering instead of speeding it up.

[pkcable]

Moved to Android, since the KF is an Android Tablet.

[Wildo6882]

Originally Posted by trelawrence

Exactly... LOL.

Still waiting on the brick quote.

I think this is what he was referring to from his original post:

"In case of any termination, you must cease all use of Amazon Silk, including the Software. Amazon may also terminate your right to use Amazon Silk at any time, and in such event may modify it to make it inoperable."

While I don't believe that would brick the entire device, it would brick Silk and leave you without any browsing options.