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Books Privacy

Adobe's Digital Editions Collecting Less Data, Says EFF 32

itwbennett writes Tests on the latest version of Adobe System's e-reader software shows the company is now collecting less data following a privacy-related dustup last month, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Adobe was criticized in early October after it was discovered Digital Editions collected metadata about e-books on a device, even if the e-books did not have DRM. Those logs were also sent to Adobe in plain text. Digital Editions version 4.0.1 appears to only collect data on e-books that have DRM (Digital Rights Management), writes Cooper Quintin, a staff technologist with the EFF.
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Adobe's Digital Editions Collecting Less Data, Says EFF

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  • I know we use data oddly in the language, but are we discussing discreet points of it, or does the quality of this data suffer?

    I suppose "data" is "sand" and we don't count sands, but it still irks me.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I am sure you meant "discrete" not "discreet", right Mr. Pedant?

      • I am sure you meant "discrete" not "discreet", right Mr. Pedant?

        My points are intentionally unobtrusive :(

    • I'll start paying attention to people getting huffy about the choice between "fewer" and "less" when they can give me an example where the meaning is changed by swapping the choice.

  • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by Minwee ( 522556 ) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Monday November 03, 2014 @01:29PM (#48302943) Homepage

      You can stop hitting yourself in the face with a hammer too.

      If you read carefully, Adobe has been collecting data through Adobe Digital Editions [wikipedia.org], which has about five letters in common with Adobe reader.

      If you have evidence of a built-in epub reader in Chrome and Firefox, feel free to share it with the rest of the class.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Willingly sending everything you do online to Google would help your privacy how? Chrome monitors everything you do. You can't press a key without informing Google about it.

    • And if you want a standalone app there's SumatraPDF - much faster and about 100 times less bloated

    • Chrome has a read built in. Firefox too?

      Both of which in my experience are flakey as hell. For example right now Chrome will display the print preview on any PDF as a blank page. There is nothing wrong with the PDF and it will print fine but you can't see it. I've had an assortment of problems with both browser's PDF readers. Chrome especially tends to break things on a semi-regular basis in our company necessitating workarounds. Chrome sometimes will display a PDF and sometime forces you to download it with no rhyme or reason why. I'd say

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Piracy FTW! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So they are only spying on you when you read DRM'd books.

    It is like the entire content industry wants people to choose piracy.

    o Piracy means no one else knows what/when/where and how long you read/watch/listen to something
    o Piracy means no worries about losing access to something you paid for
    o Piracy means no lock-in to single devices or single manufacturer "ecosystems"

    Even if pirated content wasn't cost free and commercial free, all the other ways these guys want to fook me over for the privilege of paying

    • by mcmonkey ( 96054 )

      So they are only spying on you when you read DRM'd books.

      It is like the entire content industry wants people to choose PAPER BOOKS.

      o PAPER BOOKS means no one else knows what/when/where and how long you read/watch/listen to something
      o PAPER BOOKS means no worries about losing access to something you paid for
      o PAPER BOOKS means no lock-in to single devices or single manufacturer "ecosystems"

      Even if pirated content wasn't cost free and commercial free, all the other ways these guys want to fook me over for the privilege of paying them money is enough to drive anyone to pirate.

      FTFY.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • First, data is plural. Should be 'one datum point'. You wouldn't say you shot one elephants in your pajamas, would you?

      Second, this system should be collecting zero data points, because no one should use it. You may laugh at the onion on my belt, but it once was in fashion, and no corporation or government knows when or what books I read, or to whom I lend them. Until the same can be said of eBooks or digital editions, such systems are broken and not fit for any use.

  • Erh, people actually -use- Adobe DE for any other legitimate purpose besides stripping out that damn DRM on an ebook?

    Didn't know it was useful for any other reason...
    • by xclr8r ( 658786 )
      Libraries use it to lend e-books. ALA was pretty ticked when it was brought to their attention. According a poll I can't seem to find at the moment libraries and museums are some of the only institutions still trusted today. http://www.ala.org/news/press-... [ala.org]
      • by Rob Bos ( 3399 )

        I work at a library, and Adobe's log server has been in our firewall for a while now. It's a violation so blatant that it actually went up a few layers of management for a change.

  • The article just says that data is sent less often and that it's encrypted.

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