A couple years ago, there were a lot of articles being shared online about how ereaders/tablets were “watching” their readers. In the digital age, privacy is a legitimate concern. In addition to hackers, companies collect and track data from their users/customers, and there’s also concerns over how much the government sees.
There’s definitely a trade-off between convenience and privacy. And over the last few years, it’s sparked a lot of interesting debate and conversation. In particular, there’s been a lot of talk over how to protect the privacy of minors.
In 2013, California made a law that anyone under 18 had the right to delete things they said online. DBW also reported that teens took matters into their own hands and avoided or uninstalled certain apps due to privacy concerns. (Though teens are very savvy about social media and protecting their privacy.)
There are also new concerns over how to protect the privacy of the deceased. Sometimes if you don’t know the passwords to social media accounts, it can be tricky to deactivate accounts. The Next Web, however, offers a helpful guide.
For people who may be concerned about who knows what they read digitally, Eric Hellman wrote up a post on which research journals let their ad networks collect data about their readers. Electronic Frontier Foundation also created a detailed ereader privacy chart, sharing exactly what information companies collect (though it is from 2012, and may be a bit outdated).
Have you encountered any issues with reading digitally? Please share in the comments!
