Who's Monitoring Your eBook Reading Habits?

In Who's Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition, EFF's Cindy Cohn and Parker Higgins write

In nearly all cases, reading e-books means giving up more privacy than browsing through a physical bookstore or library, or reading a paper book in your own home. Here, we've examined the policies of Google Books, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, Sony, Overdrive, Indiebound, Internet Archive, and Adobe Content Server for answers to the following questions:

• Can they keep track of searches for books?
• Can they monitor what you're reading and how you're reading it after purchase and link that information back to you? Can they do that when the e-book is obtained elsewhere?
• What compatibility does the device have with books not purchased from an associated eBook store?
• Do they keep a record of book purchases? Can they track book purchases or acquisitions made from other sources?
• With whom can they share the information collected in non-aggregated form?
• Do they have mechanisms for customers to access, correct, or delete the information?
• Can they share information outside the company without the customer's consent?

The authors add "[i]n many cases, these answers were frustratingly vague and long-winded." See EFF's The E-Reader Privacy Chart, 2012 Edition for the results. In the context of course management systems, see Mark Giangrande's Professor Big Brother Is Watching. [JH]