3 ms·

This isn't necessarily sinister. I know UI/UX designers and a lot of them talk about wanting a heatmap of clicks on a given webpage for experience reasons. They

This isn't necessarily sinister. I know UI/UX designers and a lot of them talk about wanting a heatmap of clicks on a given webpage for experience reasons. They want to know where and what you're clicking and how often so they can optimize processes and flow. It gives insight into how things are used and what's used most often etc. Granted this isn't necessarily directly applicable to this case with the kindle, but similar in concept.

stefan_ 7y ago
Facebook receiving purchase events from Dominos with the toppings you ordered isn't necessarily sinister. They just want to know what you are eating! Users are not your experimental group. This attitude should have died years ago, latest with the GDPR.
- TheFiend7 7y ago
  Very different concepts actually. One is optimizing/improving experience based on anonymous data, the other is building user profiles for targeted ads. Mapbox is a fantastic example of mass data aggregation of users that has been anonymized. EDIT: Why should we do clinical studies on medicines when that could be invasive to a persons privacy collecting such personal information? Is it necessarily wrong? Tools can be used for good and evil, that's the problem here, not the tool itself.
  - pseudalopex 7y ago
    The Kindle data is tied to the account. And who says Amazon isn't using it to target ads? Clinical trials require informed consent and institutional review. Regulating software telemetry like other human subject research would make privacy advocates very happy.
    - TheFiend7 7y ago
      We actually agree with each other so I'm struggling to see what your point is that contradicts mine. I explicitly said what I'm talking about isn't necessarily directly applicable to amazon kindle. I also agreed with you regarding software telemetry being used responsibly and irresponsibly. So I'll repeat I don't see where we disagree.

stefan_ 7y ago

Facebook receiving purchase events from Dominos with the toppings you ordered isn't necessarily sinister. They just want to know what you are eating! Users are not your experimental group. This attitude should have died years ago, latest with the GDPR.

TheFiend7 7y ago
Very different concepts actually. One is optimizing/improving experience based on anonymous data, the other is building user profiles for targeted ads. Mapbox is a fantastic example of mass data aggregation of users that has been anonymized. EDIT: Why should we do clinical studies on medicines when that could be invasive to a persons privacy collecting such personal information? Is it necessarily wrong? Tools can be used for good and evil, that's the problem here, not the tool itself.
- pseudalopex 7y ago
  The Kindle data is tied to the account. And who says Amazon isn't using it to target ads? Clinical trials require informed consent and institutional review. Regulating software telemetry like other human subject research would make privacy advocates very happy.
  - TheFiend7 7y ago
    We actually agree with each other so I'm struggling to see what your point is that contradicts mine. I explicitly said what I'm talking about isn't necessarily directly applicable to amazon kindle. I also agreed with you regarding software telemetry being used responsibly and irresponsibly. So I'll repeat I don't see where we disagree.