Yes, Your E-Book is Spying on You

Alarmist stories at Gigaom, Arstechnica, and elsewhere have recently villainized Adobe Systems for collecting e-book analytics (in unencrypted form) from readers, surreptitiously. “Adobe is Spying on Users, Collecting Data on Their eBook Libraries,” a headline from http://the-digital-reader.com blares. Arstechnica is shocked, shocked that people’s reading habits are being monitored. And the data’s being sent over the wire unencrypted. Stop the presses! Notify the authorities!

Give me a break.

Let’s get something straight. Amazon scrapes your reading stats every time you read an e-book. So does Apple. (See the WSJ story “Your Ebook Is Reading You.”) Oh, and by the way, who do you think owns Goodreads (which knows a lot about your reading habits)? Amazon, that’s who.

Google processes your Gmail to uncover keywords that help it put customized Amazon ads in your face every day. Somehow that’s not news, but the fact that Adobe slurps e-book analytics from users of Adobe Digital Editions is treated as if it’s the scandal of the century.

Analytics is a big (and I mean enormous) part of what Adobe does now. Do you remember when Adobe acquired Omniture in 2009 for $1.8 billion? What do you suppose that was all about?

It was about analytics, that’s what.

Some of the largest web properties in the world run on top of Adobe’s Experience Management suite. The latter ties world-class content management to world-class analytics solutions.

Read up on Adobe’s SiteCatalyst here. (And yes, Adobe discloses its “spying” activities in its terms of service. Read about it here.)

Everything you do online is captured, measured, stored, analyzed, by someone, somewhere. Sure, Amazon knows how fast a reader you are, what you like to read, what you finish and don’t finish reading, etc. Apple knows this stuff too. Adobe too.

That world we used to live in where no one knew this stuff about you? That world before web analytics? The world of paper-and-ink books that could be read in private? That world is pretty much gone with the wind. Unless you do, in fact, still mostly read paper books. (As I do.)

So let’s drop the hysterics about Adobe “spying on readers.” Everyone with a web connection is being “spied on” (if that’s what you want to call it) nonstop, all the time.

If you don’t like it, write your Congressperson. Start a petition. Unplug from the Internet.

But don’t heap scorn on Adobe. That’s just plain immature.

Disclosure: I used to work for Adobe Systems. I do not work for them, in any capacity, today. These are my opinions. They come solely from me.

Kris Chang, Ph.D.

Creative Writer (LION Open Networker)

9y

A good topic for discussion.

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Kait Neese, MBA

E-Resources & Open-Access Manager @ Lyrasis | MBA, Open-Access Initiatives

9y

Your post is for sure a breath of fresh air from the usual rants on digital publishing I see online. But what I enjoyed most was the simple way you brought to light the underlying fact that your data is being mined, captured, used and stored across the board. Data, Big Data, is everywhere. The fact is your clicks here, there, over on LinkedIn/Goodreads/Overstock/heck even small business owner Joe Scmoe's ecommerce marmalade website are being tracked. Now the real question is what can you do with that power of knowlege? Knowing each click matters and connects you endlessly on the internet. How can you use that to your advantage? I am waiting for the day (smile) when the tides turn and we finally have matured tech on the consumer end. Apps that shows us each just how valuable our clicks are and who is acceding our data feeds. Total transparency between consumer and business. A girl can dream :) Great article. -Kait Neese @KaitNeese

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Gary S.

Content Marketing Strategist | Video & Podcast Production | Driving Growth Through Innovative Digital Campaigns

9y

I agree with your point of view here. People forget there is value behind recommendations that are personalized just for you. Back in the "good old days" I had to forage around libraries checking out books that might be something useful, only to get part way through it and end up putting it on my stack to return. It's a different world now. Data for good helps companies better utilize advertising dollars to target the right demographic of likely consumers and helps companies spending those advertising dollars invest in analytics to provide better service to their customers. That's reality.

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John Tait

Digital Content Analyst

9y

Buy a Kobo, turn off the wifi, side-load a bunch of EPUBs via USB, and you're set.

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