eReaders and Privacy

eBooks are wildly popular, both among the general public and among library users - the sales/checkout figures prove it. Yet there is some concern about the way certain eReaders may compromise users' privacy. For instance, did you know that Amazon retains information about the books, magazine subscriptions, newspapers and other digital content on the Kindle and the reader’s interaction with that content? This includes an automatic bookmark of the last page read, the content deleted from the device, and any annotations, bookmarks, notes, highlights, or similar markups made by the reader. Did you know that Amazon has in the past deleted books from Kindles without the owner's knowledge or consent? Other companies also engage in the retention of such information (But not the library! Your privacy is extraordinarily important to us and we don't collect any of this type of information!) To learn more, check out this report from the ACLU and a handy eReader comparison page from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).