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Reading this made me grateful that there are still ways to avoid all this surveillance. For example,—and this is just the tip of the iceberg—reading Standard Eb
by medler 3y ago
Reading this made me grateful that there are still ways to avoid all this surveillance. For example,—and this is just the tip of the iceberg—reading Standard Ebooks on a privacy-respecting ebook reader.
- ARandomerDude 3y ago> privacy-respecting ebook reader Suggestions?
- itscrush 3y agoKobo seems to work readily offline simply out of box. Plug in usb-c to upload books?
- thaumasiotes 3y agoA kindle will do the same thing. Everything is privacy-respecting if there's no internet connection.
- bippihippi1 3y agokindles have cellular modems
- dugite-code 3y agoNot all of them and they are surprisingly easy to remove. At least the old ones are: https://peekread.info/tech/20210120-removing-3g-modem-from-a-kindle-paperwhite-2/ https://peekread.info/tech/20210120-removing-3g-modem-from-a...
- cricalix 3y agoThey've stopped making Kindles with modems. Latest gen ones are WiFi only. Of course, the hardware might still be in there, just not available for book purchasing.
- TheFreim 3y agoI really enjoy my Kobo Libra H2O with KOReader installed.
- maurits 3y agoMy new Kobo refused to start out of the box, without making an account. Very disappointing.
- BHSPitMonkey 3y agoI created an account, but then installed KOreader on my Libra 2 and just read books through that. It's FOSS, more customizable, and supports OPDS feeds which can do pretty neat things like finding articles from HN[0]. [0] https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/news2reader https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/news2reader
- sotix 3y agoI read that KOreader is unstable on the Libra 2[0], so I haven’t installed it yet even though I would like to. What has been your experience running it? [0] https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/8414 https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/8414
- BHSPitMonkey 3y agoIt's been perfectly stable for me since I got the device a few months ago, but I also don't read for hours at a time like the other commenter. It's possible that it leaks memory after viewing several hundred pages or something like that.
- beej71 3y agoI had it installed for a while, and there were fairly frequent crashes (i.e. about once every 8 hours of reading) requiring a reboot. But it was _almost_ worth it. It's a really great reader, especially for reading PDFs. After some software update about 6 months ago it got halfway uninstalled somehow and I did a factory reset and haven't reinstalled it yet. I recall reading that it's not on KOreader's side, and they can'tfix. :(
- beej71 3y agoCan confirm you need to log into your Kobo account to get it going.
- thih9 3y agoI keep my kindle in airplane mode.
- qwertox 3y agoDo you need to keep it 100% of the time in airplane mode? Couldn't it be queuing stats to upload them once it leaves AP mode?
- dugite-code 3y agoWith a jailbroken kindle you can install the BBB (Block Big Brother) filter on the firewall (it's running linux under the hood after all): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2425330 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2425330 Alternatively like me you can just remove the 3g modem in it's entirety: https://peekread.info/tech/20210120-removing-3g-modem-from-a-kindle-paperwhite-2/ https://peekread.info/tech/20210120-removing-3g-modem-from-a...
- bryanrasmussen 3y agowhat happens when you buy Kindle in EU, I would think when you first turn it on they would have to ask if you want to be tracked and if not would have to fuck off.
- dugite-code 3y agoThat's a good question I couldn't find anything in my cursory searches. Knowing Amazon because all the focus has been on Web browsers and cookies there might not be much available on the ebook front atm.
- lrem 3y agoKindle with ads has been observed to, after a couple alerts that it’s been offline for too long, just ignore airplane mode at some point.
- 3y ago
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoI like the Marvin3 reader on iPhone. Haven't found something I like on the desktop though.
- bluish29 3y agoIs it still on app store or just not available in the US?
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoOh shit. My bad. I don't know honestly... I got it a couple years ago, and it was everything that Books wasn't. Apple Books thinks I want to put tiny 1mb epub files in my iCloud, which is full (no idea why) and then it won't save them. So when I reopen, now the book's gone even though I have like 40 gigs free on my phone. Simple interface, simple list of books to choose from, etc. And now the damned thing's gone and I have no idea why.
- II2II 3y agoThe underlying problem is obtaining the books. Even if you never register your ereader and never let it go online, you are just shifting the problem to a computer. They loose fine-grained details about what you are reading, but that's about it. If you understand that and take proper precautions, I would imagine that any ereader that doesn't require registration would be fine. If you never put it online, it cannot accidentally go online. Plus it isn't tied to your name. Personally, I use Kobo. You have to jump through a hoop to bypass registration by modifying an SQLite database. Other than that there are no protections, so you aren't using sketchy software to realize that degree of privacy.
- Hoodedcrow 3y ago> you are just shifting the problem to a computer. Libgen works with anonymizers.
- onetokeoverthe 3y ago[dead]
- sebtron 3y agoPocketbook https://pocketbook.ch https://pocketbook.ch You can download your books as you want and copy them to the device in many ways, including connecting the thing via USB to your pc and using it as an external storage unit. Sounds trivial but try to do that with a smartphone. You can buy books from their shop if you make an account, but it is completely optional.
- pneff 3y agoI wasn't aware of Pocketbook, interesting to see a smaller competitor in this market. Unfortunately they might run into the same issues discussed in this article. They have two privacy policies. The one which seems to cover their web site [1] and one which I assume is for their devices [2]. The latter says the following: > We collect such non identified information concerning the Application: > […] > Usage Data includes information about how you use our Application. By Usage Data we mean: how you use your book library, information concerning which buttons on the Application you click, which you do not, how often do you use buttons, turning on/ off the device, setting font options, changing the interface language, sending archive, changing the library settings, setting the read mode. We collect these information to make our Services better for the end-customers. Understanding of your usage preference give us the opportunity to develop better Application, which will have higher reliability, usability, compressed functionality and extremely easy startup. The first privacy policy [1] though says they do not collect any "Special Categories of Personal Data about you". [1] https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/privacy-policy https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/privacy-policy [2] https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/reader-mobile-privacy-notice https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/reader-mobile-privacy-notice
- Hoodedcrow 3y agoCan't you just never connect your device to the internet though?
- Novosell 3y agoAre you saying it's hard to get phones recognized as external storage devices? I've not had this issue with any of my android phones or my Boox e-reader which runs android.
- aorth 3y agoStandard Ebooks is a fantastic project. I have been supporting them for years. I love their attention to detail of typography and their approach to building the books in the open, from source code, with open source tools. I wish their project existed in many other languages! The only caveat is that they have to wait for books that are in the public domain.
- neilv 3y agoA year ago, I bought a PocketBook InkPad Lite for this purpose, and keep its WiFi disabled, as an interim solution, until hardware&firmware that guarantees privacy. I buy non-DRM ebooks (so far, they cost about twice Kindle prices), and `rsync` them to the ereader over USB. More info: https://www.neilvandyke.org/ebooks/ https://www.neilvandyke.org/ebooks/
- Y_Y 3y agoSave money by buying the normal book and pirating the non-restricted version
- _nalply 3y agoThis assumes that buying the normal book gives you protection from prosecution. I am not sure whether you really can assume this. Meanwhile in my jurisdiction, as long as I don't share with the public, I am free to download unencumbered ebooks and other media when I find them. No need to buy something for hope of non-prosecution.
- Y_Y 3y agoYou've assumed avoiding prosecution was the aim! I feel it's underwood around the literati that it's trivial to avoid being caught and so anyone who hands over money is doing so for morality or convenience. For most e-books (anything mass-market or academic) the convenience is better for piracy so my suggestion was for someone who didn't want to feel they weren't properly rewarding the author/publisher.
- _nalply 3y agoMy bad, sorry. However: We all know that creators don't get the whole money you pay for some works. If I would want to support a creator I would try to find a way to support directly. In other words I find it a bad idea to buy a book as a way to donate.
- 3y ago
- getwiththeprog 3y agohttps://standardebooks.org/ https://standardebooks.org/
- kdwikzncba 3y agoCan you give me an example of a pricacy-respective ebook reader? I recently bought a Kobo Nia, and then returned it because it required me to create an account before I could use it. Afterwards I got a PocketBook Basic Lux 4. This I have been using without having had to create an account. I've also never connected it to any wifi. However, I have no way of knowing, without taking significant effort to investigate, whether it's not connecting to free wifi's and relaying back to home my books list etc..
- dublinben 3y agoIt’s really easy to hack a kobo to use it without registering: https://jacobalbano.com/2021/06/24/setting-up-a-kobo-without-logging-in/ https://jacobalbano.com/2021/06/24/setting-up-a-kobo-without...
- kdwikzncba 3y agoOk but why would I use the device that I have to trick, when a device that doesn't require an account from factory is available? I don't wanna deal with a company that builds ebooks with the expectation that I need to register to some account.
- octobus2021 3y agoI bought Clara 2e and was very disappointed with the requirement to create an account. After some googling I found you can start it in "sideloader" mode. To do that I plugged it in as USB device and updated a config file by adding "sideloaderMode=true". After restart it skipped account creation and allowed me to start reading the books. I use Calibri to manage my books and collections. Haven't found how to add dictionaries as of yet but I think it can be done too.
- arp242 3y ago> I have no way of knowing, without taking significant effort to investigate, whether it's not connecting to free wifi's and relaying back to home my books list etc. I think this is bordering on the unreasonable to be honest. There is no reason to assume it's doing this, and it would be wildly illegal (in EU at least).