How I Reversed Amazon's Kindle Web Obfuscation Because Their App Sucked

Comments

• magikmw@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Not including code makes me uninterested in using this knowledge.

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• spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I find it puzzling that people are OK with allowing a mammoth, regularly hostile corporation know exactly what books they’re reading as well as the exact details of their reading habits. Everything is accessible to Amazon- how often you access a book, how fast your read and when you linger on or return to a page. I wonder when they’ll implement camera-based eye tracking so they know what word you’re on?

  The same Public libraries that vigorously defend the privacy of our reading lists are simultaneously fine outsourcing all ebook access to Amazon where there’s no expectation of privacy at all. Epubs at those libraries are now so well hidden they’re not even mentioned anymore and access is buried multiple levels deep in the mandatory Libby app.

  I love the ease of access and convenience of ebooks, but paper books are becoming more and more appealing by comparison.

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  • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The same public libraries that vigorously defend the privacy of our reading lists

    The Patriot act allows the feds to get the books you’ve checked out at your local library.

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    • smh@slrpnk.net ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yep. Good news on that front: libraries I’ve worked at just don’t keep records of what you’ve checked out after you’ve returned it, unless there was some sort of fine or something. Can’t give up data you don’t have and if the library avoids storing the data for anyone then it’s hard to accuse the library of selectively hiding data.

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    • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Does “the feds” include Amazon?

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  • bluegreenpurplepink@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I sideload my own books and then turn off the internet on the Kindle. Other than knowing what books I have, are they still able to monitor all those other things?

    I ask because I don’t completely understand some of this internet networking stuff. The other day I turned off my router while I was watching a video on YouTube and the video kept playing with no interruption or lag while I thought I had turned off the wifi in my house. I guess we can’t turn it off anymore? Or was it able to keep playing because it was cached?

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    • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      If the Kindle never has Internet access (and that includes access through another app) Amazon should not be able to connect at all. YouTube buffers content and your device may have already downloaded the entire file, but if it’s a phone it would just switch to the mobile network.

      Sometimes I think I’m too paranoid about this stuff and the next day they’ll be another headline about corporate abuse of “protected” consumer data or yet another breach. Remember Facebook’s years long access of protected medical records through a tracking tool installed on a third of medical websites? I’m probably not paranoid enough.

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    • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Timestamps on activities you take can be combined with other data points to figure out things like your location, what people are nearby you, and what you are doing at that moment. These data points are created frequently and can be reviewed actively or retroactively.

      That data is collected and sold by data brokers, who then sell it to law enforcement and government, as well as advertisers and other companies.

      AI is very good at finding patterns in data points, and is accelerating the usability of all this data thats been collected.

      I simply don’t like the idea of being targeted or used, so ive tried to minimize data collection. I have a custom ROM on my phone and have linux on my computers. I dont have accounts with companies I dont trust. Sometimes if I have to make an account anyways, I’ll use fake information and a vpn.

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  • Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Amazon can’t see shit that me and mine read, but that’s cuz I liberated my Kindle books and now read/listen to all of my Kindle/audible books through audiobookshelf.

    So glad I made that jump a few years ago

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• ikidd@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I stopped buying books from Amazon long ago because their Android app is such dogshit. I can’t imagine going to this much trouble to continue giving them money to reward their terrible engineering.

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• baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This needs to be an open source script! I would love to use it to actually own my purchased books.

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  • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They’ll modify it soon enough. Amazon will respond to only one thing - everyone stops buying ebooks from Amazon.

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    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Understood, but I “purchased” books over the years is like to keep as mine.

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    • falidorn@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      media4.giphy.com/media/…/giphy.gif

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  • timestatic@feddit.org ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Just buy ebooks from sites that don’t fucking you over in the future. If you already have a kindle its annoying but pocketbooks and other eReaders are right there.

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    • ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Or send money straight to the author and pirate the book

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• IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Don’t support Amazon at all.

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• 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  We need a better solution than a script reliant on a megacorpo service

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• tehn00bi@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Not all hero’s wear capes.

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