Amazon is going to be releasing one of the most highly anticipated tablets in 2011 with the Kindle Fire. One of the main selling points is the internet browser called Silk. It primarily functions by caching in the cloud the most common websites you visit and gives you a cached version of it. This will drastically increase the speed of the entire experience.
Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who chairs the the Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, has sent a letter to Amazon asking for clarification how the company stores user data. He also asked the Seattle based online retailer on what Amazon intends on using all of the data they collect for. Right now there is no private policy for the Kindle Fire, pertaining to the Silk Browser. The intention of the letter is to find out the particulars and get the company to revise their documentation so people are aware of how their data is being handled. This might prompt Amazon to allow customers to OPT OUT of the entire cloud based experience if their data is being sold to other companies or being used for nefarious purposes.
As it stands Amazon will collect detailed records of every single website you visit. Since they cache the details, they will have a log of all your online activity. To be clear Amazon is under no legal obligation to comply or respond to the letter but it would be under their best interest to do so. Since Markey chairs the Privacy committee it does have power to elevate the power to compel Amazon to provide the details.
At the very least the letter should stimulate Amazon in revising its Privacy Policy for the cloud based Silk browser.
Legal Document Courtesy of Teleread
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
