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This whole story seems overblown. Amazon removed a feature that nobody would ever use, and people imagined some conspiracy. A Kindle Fire is not a desktop com

This whole story seems overblown. Amazon removed a feature that nobody would ever use, and people imagined some conspiracy. A Kindle Fire is not a desktop computer, it's somewhere between a television and a crappy web browser. Amazon Silk is so painful to use that you'll never browse the web with it for more than a minute or two anyway, why care about encrypting your browsing history? Would anybody care about encrypting the local storage on their TiVo? My guess is that this went: "Oh, here's a feature that 0.5% of our users have tried, and 50% of them contacted support for help turning it off (because it slowed down video playback), let's kill it." (Mwahahaha?)

danblick 11y ago
Don't take my word for it, read the article... """ Also, the devices are mainly designed to deliver digital entertainment, instead of being used as communication tools. That suggests there’s less of a chance users will have any sensitive personal information stored on their Fire tablets. """ """ Amazon removed encryption from the devices in late 2015, possibly to reduce costs for its tablets and electronic readers. The devices aren’t intended for communication of sensitive data, although they can be used to access the Internet and e-mail. """
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  "Reduce costs"? How does having an encryption program installed add costs?
  - jonathankoren 11y ago
    Chips and Help Desk Support?
notatoad 11y ago
It's especially overblown since encryption was dropped six months ago and nobody noticed until now.
- ikeboy 11y ago
  Source? As far as I can tell it was released in 2016.
  - notatoad 11y ago
    "What's new in fire OS 5", published September 17 2015 http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135336-what-s-new-in-amazon-fire-os-5-bellini http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135336-what-s-new-in-amazon-...
    - ikeboy 11y ago
      >The Amazon Fire OS 5 Bellini will come with the latest tablets from Amazon and will be available for older tablets via an over the air update in the coming months

danblick 11y ago

Don't take my word for it, read the article... """ Also, the devices are mainly designed to deliver digital entertainment, instead of being used as communication tools. That suggests there’s less of a chance users will have any sensitive personal information stored on their Fire tablets. """ """ Amazon removed encryption from the devices in late 2015, possibly to reduce costs for its tablets and electronic readers. The devices aren’t intended for communication of sensitive data, although they can be used to access the Internet and e-mail. """

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
"Reduce costs"? How does having an encryption program installed add costs?
- jonathankoren 11y ago
  Chips and Help Desk Support?

notatoad 11y ago

It's especially overblown since encryption was dropped six months ago and nobody noticed until now.

ikeboy 11y ago
Source? As far as I can tell it was released in 2016.
- notatoad 11y ago
  "What's new in fire OS 5", published September 17 2015 http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135336-what-s-new-in-amazon-fire-os-5-bellini http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135336-what-s-new-in-amazon-...
  - ikeboy 11y ago
    >The Amazon Fire OS 5 Bellini will come with the latest tablets from Amazon and will be available for older tablets via an over the air update in the coming months