Scrutable

I was listening to a "The Rest is Entertainment" podcast from last month (18th Sept) in which there was a discussion that started about how sites such as the Guardian use timers on web-pages to give an indication of how long people stay engaged - as part of which Richard Osman passed on that although there wasn't data on how far people got through a book on Kindle, there was data passed back to Amazon on where people highlighted parts of the text.

I very rarely use Kindle - and it's a long time since I checked the 'user agreement' text, but it seems to be the capture and use of a piece a use of 'user data' that isn't essential for the user itself, and I find it hard to say that there's an overriding legitimate purpose for it to be captured.

I do use Kindle (both as a device and an app). To be fair, they make it obvious that they are collecting data about which passages people have highlighted, because those passages are rendered in a slightly different way to the rest of the text, and, if you rest on them, you get a pop up telling you how many people have highlighted them. To be honest, I am so busy being irritated at Kindle telling me which passages I ought to look at that I haven't yet got round to being irritated at the invasion of privacy.

snoozeofreason wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 6:22 pm I do use Kindle (both as a device and an app). To be fair, they make it obvious that they are collecting data about which passages people have highlighted, because those passages are rendered in a slightly different way to the rest of the text, and, if you rest on them, you get a pop up telling you how many people have highlighted them. To be honest, I am so busy being irritated at Kindle telling me which passages I ought to look at that I haven't yet got round to being irritated at the invasion of privacy.

Interesting. As I say, only rarely use it, as I avoid Amazon unless absolutely necessary.

I agree that highlighting is irritating, but it's easy to turn it off in the settings menu.

bolo wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 7:52 pm I agree that highlighting is irritating, but it's easy to turn it off in the settings menu.

Ah, thanks. I've found it now.