Congressman Edward Markey asks Amazon some questions about the Silk browser

Markey can “request” this information, but not sure under what authority he has to compel Amazon to provide it. I wonder if Markey has also asked similar questions of the local grocery store and their customer membership card program. I would think that Amazon has been generating consumer preference information all along – how else do they know what to “recommend” to me? Just seems like political grandstanding to me.

If Amazon had any…well, they’d tell Congresscritter Markey, “None of your business.”

I’m sure what Markey really wants to know is, “How can Congress get its hands on all the information you’ll be collecting so that we can better control and monitor the American serfs?”

Oh, and if Markey is really concerned about privacy issues, I hope he’s sent a letter to the United States government since it’s one of the biggest violators of American privacy and one of the biggest collectors of browsing information.

Nice to see this move by Mr Markey. Here in Europe we have Data Protection Acts and this kind of Data Collection is strictly regulated.

It’s political showboating. The Fire isn’t going to collect any information that Amazon, and other companies besides, haven’t been collecting for years now (anyone heard of iTunes?). Someone put a bee up Markey’s @$$ to hassle Amazon over “privacy issues” because it’s in the forefront of the news right now (after all, it must be important if it’s in the New York Times).

No, he has no authority to demand that information, but he can request it ’til the cows come home. I’m sure he’ll get a token PR response from Amazon, and that’ll be the end of it.

How is it political “showboating” to obtain facts about Amazon’s collection of personal data?

How does iTunes know what websites I am visiting? The iTunes Music Store knows what music I buy because that is a commercial transaction with Apple. Visiting TeleRead or Drudge Retort or Despair.com is not a transaction with Apple, and iTunes is not known to collect such data.

“Someone put a bee up Markey’s @$$ to hassle Amazon over privacy issues”

Markey has a very long record of concern over such issues, which is what citizens pay him for.

“No, he has no authority to demand that information, but he can request it ’til the cows come home.”

It’s usually better to answer a Congressional inquiry voluntarily before being called to testify before the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Neither iTunes nor Amazon know the web sites I visit and the pages I visit, and the suggestion that they do is ridiculous.
And yes I have heard of iTunes, but perhaps you might explain exactly how iTunes gains and transmits the history of my web browsing to Apple ? Because this is the first I have ever heard of that suggestion.
I also think that a policy of saying ‘ah well let them do whatever they want to’ is an appalling idea for a modern democracy. Placing such uncontrolled trust in an international corporation is surely insane!
It seems clear to me, even as a non US person, that the issue of whether Mr Markay has the authority to demand anything is complete irrelevant. What matters is that he is raising the issue, bringing it to the attention of the wider public and his colleagues. If there is sufficient interest then authority may well arrive at Amazon’s door sometime in the not too distant future.

The Kindle Fire is a tablet computer.

With a must-use Amazon internet browser.

Which means Amazon will have a complete record of where the user goes and what they do when they get there. What you google. Which political websites you visit. What you buy anywhere that isn’t Amazon.

ALL websites.

Not just the places you go at Amazon.

“With a must-use Amazon internet browser”

The issue is not the browser — indeed, alternative browsers may become available — the issue is the Silk proxy service which splits processing between the user device and EC2 (Amazon cloud).

Markey ignored that this service is optional, which Amazon has repeatedly confirmed.

“Users can completely turn off the split-browsing mode and use Amazon Silk like a conventional Web browser.”

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-congressmans-kindle-fire-privacy-concerns-is-big-browser-watching-you/

“To Amazon’s credit, it allows you to turn off Silk’s cloud features and use it like a typical browser. That would address the privacy and security problems that could arise from using the software, but then you’ll lose all the advantages of processing browser activity in the cloud.”

http://www.pcworld.com/article/240893/amazon_silk_pros_and_cons.html

Vicki – “ALL websites.”

Exactly ! I can see this causing a major problem with data Protection Agencies in the EU for a start.

“Markey ignored that this service is optional, which Amazon has repeatedly confirmed.”

No I don’t believe he did, or should have, ignored this claim. How many users who buy the Fire know of this choice? How many know how to turn it off ? How many know how to use proxy servers ? No. This one is not going away imho.

This is political grandstanding at its best. He is jumping up and down and screaming before he has checked his facts. Since a KFire user can turn off the Silk browser, his letter is nothing but self-serving political chest beating.

iTunes and Google have been tracking my every move for years. Amazon at least has a reputation for keeping the information to themselves without sharing it to anyone.

A better use of Mr. Markey’s time might be to look into Facebook’s new plan to water down their privacy settings as to make them entirely useless. Facebook has been systematically developing ways to invade their posters own privacy preferences for years now. The latest new “improvement” is a lot more egregious than anything Amazon and their Silk browser can be accused of.

January – your comment is fact challenged in itself. But I would love if you could put me right.
I would be fascinated if you can tell me how iTunes and Amazon have been tracking my every move? or even my browsing history ?
Also please enlighten us as to how many owners of a Fire know a) how to turn off the tracking or b) even know they are being tracked ?
I have a facebook account, and I would be fascinated to learn how Facebook are tracking my browsing habits ? or any of my other activities outside facebook ?

I look forward to learning …

“Markey has a very long record of concern over such issues, which is what citizens pay him for.”

Well, they’re not getting their money’s worth out of him, if he’s bothering Amazon and NOT the other booksellers, all online companies, all telecoms, every grocery store with a discount card, etc, etc.

He’s bothering Amazon because they’re the flavor of the week. That’s why it’s showboating.

People shouting about a US Congressperson having no power to ask Amazon questions about this should probably google ‘Contempt of Congress’ and Congressional subpoena.

And accusations of grandstanding are besides the point when you’re talking about politicians.

Wow .. I should really run down to my local veg shop and tell him to stop monitoring my web browsing history then ! Gee thanks for reminding me !

Howard

iTunes tracks your browsing history inside of the program. Not what you buy, but what you search for etc.

Amazon does the same thing obviously to be able to generate the “based on your previous items” listing of goods.

Facebook does something much worse. Up until early October the Facebook cookie on your machine tracked EVERY website you visited no matter if it was related to FB or if you were logged into FB. Also because of how their App Eco System works any authorized apps had access to this data also. They called this a bug fix when they announced a change to their code because they did not mean for the secondary and tertiary apps to have access to the info only FB.

So this example shows how any website that uses a persistent cookie on your machine can find at least one way to track your every move over the net.

Tracking by IP address which is what Google does is easier to do.

Both of these can be obfuscated by using proxy servers and private browsing settings but that depends on the user having the knowledge (and caring about it) to do so.

As to users being able to disable functions on a Fire? we don’t know yet, until a handful of reviewers get their hands on them to test them out in mid November.

I believe this letter was an attempt to get a large Corporation to understand that someone is paying attention and to be careful just how far they go with this.

Or in a more cynical moment a coded message saying what someone could do to a Company that “forgets” to make a campaign contribution.

BOB

BOB – thank you for confirming what I said. iTunes does not have access to anyone’s browsing history on the web and neither does Amazon’s web site.
Facebook’s cookie only worked if the browser enabled long term cookies afaik, and in the cookie there was no record of the IP.
Amazon’s Fire goes into a completely new dimension, and as you correctly point out no one knows anything much about this opt-out, or how difficult or easy it will be, or how aware buyers and users will be about it.

Apparently EFF has taken a look at the Silk browser and “.. were generally satisfied with the privacy design…”

Article at BoingBoing.net