A few days ago I read a terrific article by a lady named Alexandra Alter. I read it as an excerpt on Zite, I think, but when I wanted to reread it, I had to do a search and found it on the Wall Street Journal. The title is Your E-Book Is Watching You. It is excellent and I thought I'd share the link.
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577490950051438304.html
Let me say that I love the creepy picture of the eyes on the printed page. I do hope that you read the article calmly. Like most technical things it is not as bad as it seems but could certainly be abused by governments and others. Here's the gist of the article for those gamers who popped into the site and really have no interest in ebooks.
Evidently, several of the big on-line booksellers have something built into their apps which can mine data from what folks read. That in itself seems to be taking liberties with folks and would seem counterproductive to spreading the ebook technology. (In fact, me talking about this is rather stupid for a guy with 23 ebooks whirling around in the stratosphere.) We knew that the bookmark feature, for one, kept a record which other readers could use to know which passages we found interesting. The thought would be, "Hey, I just won't bookmark anything". Well, it goes a little deeper than that.
Let me say that if it were never abused it would not be that big a deal, because the data is kept for generalities rather than individuals. Unfortunately, you can write it down, with every new technology there are unsavory people both in government and the private sector who are eager to abuse it.
For instance, this feature is being used by marketers who work for the publishing industry. They know how long it took the average person to read The Hunger Games, how many passages they reread and if they immediately bought the next book in the series. On an impersonal basis, taken as a part of the whole, this is not too bad, but still it is none of their D*** business what I read or reread or buy.
Those of us who know much of anything about the internet or even about shopping at Wal-Mart, know that privacy is just an illusion. For instance, I know of a guy who was buying sinus medicine to use in Meth. He went to several towns to buy it at various Wal-Marts. When he was a mile from the second Walmart he was pulled over and arrested for his deed. Am I in support of people doing this stuff? Of course not. I don't want meth or those who mess with it on the same planet with me. But the whole Big Brother thing is flawed.
A friend of mine does contract work in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He recently mailed me a copy of The Chattanooga Times. On the front page is an article on Drones. Yes, those high-tech spy devices used by the U.S. military and CIA in Afghanistan and other places. I remember when those first came to light. They said "Oh, these will never be used on our own people or in our own country". I laughed out loud when I read that. I am old enough to remember when people were concerned about Social Security numbers being abused. The quote from the government was. "This number is for Social Security accounts and will never be used for anything else."Rightttttt. But I digress. Back to the Drone article.
This June 20th article by Joan Lowy of the AP is a terrific piece. It tells how the FAA is now in charge of issuing permits for the use of Drones on American soil. 'Only' 300 have been issued thus far, but thousands are waiting in line. People like farmers, oil companies, real estate agents and of course, law enforcement, have applied for permits. This is just those who want to abuse your rights within the law. This doesn't include Joe Blow who just wants to check out his hot neighbors. You think he'll worry about a permit? Ha, ha.
At the green retreat, I found that when I built a new deck on my house it was added to my next tax assessment because it is done by airplane. Oops! No more all-over tans! I didn't do that anyway, just saying. Of course there are other things like street cams and traffic cams that identify felons as they drive down the interstate. Sigh.
Can you imagine the paparazzi with drones? I read that Congress was under pressure from drone manufacturers and the military to allow more drones in the U.S. Think Congress is bought and paid for? Gee, I don't know.
Sorry for such a serious article. I normally talk about frivolous stuff, but since I am part of the ebook industry in a small way, I thought I'd mention this to my readers. It's not that big a deal, about the ebooks I mean, in a way. In another way it is a darn big deal and an invasion of my 'privacy' and yours.
From the desk of CE Wills.
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