This has been going on for sometime, but just now is getting noticed in the more mainstream press. Alexandra Alter's piece in the Wall Street journal is one of the best at explaining what is being done. Read
article "Your E-Book Is Reading You"
As a reader I am less than thrilled with the idea of being tracked in such a way. Smacks too much of a Orwellian type deal for me. Whether or not Amazon's tracking stuff works for the "Kindle for PC" deal is not made clear.
I also know that I fundamentally read much differently on screen than with a book in my hands. I read slower, for shorter stretches of time, and have less patience with an on screen book than I do with a print book.
The world is changing and while this may help some authors in some way, one should be able to read what one wants to with an expectation of privacy.
Kevin
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I posted an article on this (Kindle Tracking readers, how fast, what pages they stop on, etc.) as reported by NPR
Interesting stuff. Wonder if they'll (the ebook reader companies such as B&N's Nook and Amazon's Kindle) eventually sell the data to publishers?
Should have posted the link to my blog article:
http://uparoundthecorner.blogspot.com/2010/12/e-books-are-you-content-and-your-actual.html
Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier...yesterday was a very bad day.
Just read your article. Things are changing and I am not sure in a good way. Televison is already driven heaving by demographics and I am concerned the same thing could happen to books. Not to mention the whole personal privacy angle.
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